ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2023
Rats choose alcohol over social reward in an operant choice procedure.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stress-coping behavior during predator odor exposure is associated with differences in decision making.Addiction neuroscience · 2026Article
- Mediodorsal thalamus of alcohol-dependent mice shows genetic and physiological adaptations and alcohol-biased calcium signaling.Neuropharmacology · 2026Article
- Stress-coping behavior during predator odor exposure is associated with differences in decision making.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anterior Insula Activity during Alcohol and Social Reward Self-Administration and Choice in Male and Female Rats.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Hippocampal Cofilin and CFL1 gene variants are linked to Alcohol Use Disorder phenotypes.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Utility of substance-free alternatives in treating and preventing harmful substance use: A narrative review of the translational research spectrum.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- Increased alcohol-biased choice behavior in mouse models of high alcohol drinking.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- A Review of Behavioral Economic Manipulations Affecting Drug versus Nondrug Choice in Rats.Perspectives on behavior science · 2025Review
- Subthalamic high-frequency deep brain stimulation reduces addiction-like alcohol use and the possible negative influence of a peer presence.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Evaluating the impact of concurrent sucrose availability on operant ethanol self-administration in male and female Long Evans rats.Addiction neuroscience · 2025Article
- Social context and drug cues modulate inhibitory control in cocaine addiction: involvement of the STN evidenced through functional MRI.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Punishment-resistant alcohol intake is mediated by the nucleus accumbens shell in female rats.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Distinct Chrna5 mutations link excessive alcohol use to types I/II vulnerability profiles and IPN GABAergic neurons.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Sex differences in the social motivation of rats: Insights from social operant conditioning, behavioural economics, and video tracking.Biology of sex differences · 2024Article
- The importance of choice and agency in animal models of addiction.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2024Article
- TheFrontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Molecular fingerprints in the hippocampus of alcohol seeking during withdrawal.Research square · 2023Article
- Role of social context in addiction etiology and recovery.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2023Review
- Selective effects of conspecific movement on social preference in zebrafish (Danio rerio) using real-time 3D tracking and 3D animation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Protective Effect of Social Reward on Opioid and Psychostimulant Reward and Relapse: Behavior, Pharmacology, and Brain Regions.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The interaction between social factors and alcohol addiction is complex, with potential for both positive and negative contributions to drug use and abstinence. Positive social connections are an important component in successful abstinence, and yet the social context of alcohol use can also lead to relapse. Recently it was shown that rats overwhelmingly choose social reward over methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin in a discrete choice procedure, and that prolonged choice for social reward attenuates incubation of drug craving. The extent to which this effect generalises to rats trained to self-administer alcohol is not known. In this study we aimed to test the effect of social reward on choice for alcohol in male and female rats. We first validated social reward self-administration in both male and female Long-Evans rats, and found that 60 s access to a social partner of the same sex can serve as an operant reinforcer. Next we trained rats to self-administer both social reward and alcohol (20% ethanol in water), and then used discrete choice trial based tests to determine whether there is a choice preference for alcohol or social reward. Our main finding is that both male and female rats showed persistent choice for alcohol over social reward, with only minor differences between the sexes. We also show that choice for alcohol could be reduced via increased response requirement for alcohol, pre-choice alcohol exposure, and also decreasing the alcohol percentage. This study shows that preference for social rewards over drugs may not generalise to rats self-administering alcohol, and we describe several conditions where choice for social reward can be developed. This study highlights the important contribution of social factors to alcohol abuse, and future studies can investigate the neurobiology underlying a shift in preference from alcohol to social rewards.
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Registered trials
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