Extinction training consisted of 1‐hour exposure to the training context in absence of alcohol and alcohol‐associated cues. Following 15 daily sessions, operant responding was successfully extinguished (<6 active responses session), and all animals participated in two 30‐minute cue‐induced reinstatement sessions. At the start of each of the two reinstatement sessions, a single 0.20‐mL alcohol reward was delivered, and active responding had no programmed consequences (alcohol not available). The two relapse tests were given with a 72‐hour interval and no additional extinction training, using a crossover design (for details see supplementary information). This design was implemented to examine (a) whether individual variability to the effects of SDPS alters reinstatement of alcohol seeking and (b) whether guanfacine could prevent heightened relapse after SDPS, as shown before.20, 23
