ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2023
Wistar rats choose alcohol over social interaction in a discrete-choice model.
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 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mediodorsal thalamus of alcohol-dependent mice shows genetic and physiological adaptations and alcohol-biased calcium signaling.Neuropharmacology · 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
- Sex-Specific patterns of vulnerability to alcohol addiction-like behaviors in rats.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- The impact of sex, species, environmental context, and alternative reinforcers in animal models of cocaine use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2025Review
- 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
- FGF21 deletion mildly exacerbates hepatic dysfunction in GAN diet and alcohol fed rats.npj metabolic health and disease · 2025Article
- 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
- 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
- Different mechanisms underlie compulsive alcohol self-administration in male and female rats.Biology of sex differences · 2024Article
- Molecular fingerprints in the hippocampus of alcohol seeking during withdrawal.Research square · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animal models of substance use disorders have been criticized for their limited translation. One important factor behind seeking and taking that has so far been largely overlooked is the availability of alternative non-drug rewards. We recently reported that only about 15% of outbred Wistar rats will choose alcohol over a sweet solution of saccharin. It was also shown using a novel operant model of choice of drugs over social rewards that social interaction consistently attenuates self-administration and incubation of craving for stimulants and opioids. Whether this is also true for alcohol and choice of alcohol over a sweet reward translates to social rewards is currently unknown. We therefore evaluated choice between alcohol and a social reward in different experimental settings in both male and female Wistar rats. We found, in contrast to prior work that employed discrete choice of drugs vs. social reward, that rats almost exclusively prefer alcohol over social interaction, irrespective of the nature of the social partner (cagemate vs. novel rat), the length of interaction, housing conditions and sex. Alcohol choice was reduced when the response requirement for alcohol was increased. However, rats persisted in choosing alcohol, even when the effort required to obtain it was 10-16 times higher (for females and males respectively) than the one for the social reward. Altogether, these results indicate that the social choice model may not generalize to alcohol, pointing to the possibility that specific interactions between alcohol and social reward, not seen when a sweet solution is used as an alternative to the drug, may play a crucial role in alcohol vs. social choice experiments.
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