Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
OpinionWhat's conditioned in conditioned place preference?
Section snippets
What is conditioned during CPP learning?
There are at least three major processes by which to account for why an animal spends more time in a place in which it received a reinforcer. Whichever of these three processes is operative will determine the interpretation of the result of the place-preference experiment.
Dissociating mechanisms at experimental level
Assuming that all three processes are active in the CPP, and let us say that one wishes to test the influence of a brain manipulation on CPP, it might be possible to segregate the contribution of the three processes to the main CPP readout, the sojourn time, by small manipulations during testing and behavioral fine analysis. The contribution of incentive processes to CPP can be assessed by manipulating the perception of the CS+, for example, by using clear versus opaque walls between
Memory
Whether or not any of the three possible effects of the treatment will be manifested in the test trial will depend on whether the animal remembers/retrieves the respective associations 26, 44. A drug may be reinforcing and at the same time establish a state–state dependent learning 45, 46. This may diminish the probability of recalling associations when animals are tested in a drug-free state 23, 47. Furthermore, should an additional treatment effect on the CPP be the object of interest (e.g.,
Concluding remarks
In this opinion article, we discuss the alternative explanations for an observed CPP and advocate the view that although remaining a valuable instrument to assess the potential of a stimulus or drug treatment to serve as a reward, the interpretation given to concomitant changes in genetics, epigenetics, neuropharmacology, and neuroanatomy must take into account processes besides classical conditioning based incentives that can contribute to results of CPP experiments. Accumulating evidence
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grants DE 792/2-4, Hu 306/27-2, as well as NEURON-ERANET DISCover (BMBF 01EW1003), and funds of the Friedrich–Alexander-University Erlangen–Nuremberg.
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