Chunk #68 — 5. Procedures for evaluating pharmacological treatments targeting alcohol abuse and dependence — 5.8. Models of ethanol-craving and -seeking in the operant chamber
use environmental cues associated with operant ethanol self-administration to assess craving/seeking behavior include (a) extinction and (b) Pavlovian Spontaneous Recovery (PSR) of responding paradigms. In both cases, lever-pressing behavior in the absence of ethanol reinforcement is recorded. Despite the absence of reinforcement, it usually takes several sessions after the maintenance of operant responding for ethanol has ended for operant lever pressing to be fully extinguished. Thus, the persistence of responding during extinction (i.e., in the absence of reward) can be considered an indicator of craving as well (Koob, 2000; Littleton, 2000).
