Nicotine place preference in a biased conditioned place preference design

Conditioned place preference (CPP) is often more effectively produced with nicotine using a biased procedure. Interpretation of results can be problematic, however, given that doses that produce CPP in rats have acute anxiolytic and residual anxiogenic effects. We tested three groups of male rats in a biased, 2-chambered apparatus. Over eight conditioning days, one group (paired group) received four alternating injections of nicotine paired with the non-preferred (white) chamber and of saline in the preferred (black) chamber. A second group (counterbalanced group) received two nicotine injections each paired with the black and white chambers, with saline pairings on alternate days. A third group (saline control) received saline injections paired with both chambers. Following conditioning, the paired group spent significantly more time in the initially non-preferred chamber relative to saline-treated controls, suggesting CPP. The counterbalanced group did not show a significant preference shift, providing evidence that the observed preference shift in the paired group was not due to a drug-induced unconditioned reduction in aversion. Although this finding is consistent with the notion that nicotine produced CPP through its rewarding effects, we cannot discount the possibility of a conditioned reduction in aversion to the non-preferred chamber. For the paired group, a negative correlation was found between time spent in the white chamber before conditioning and preference shift following conditioning, suggesting that animals showing greater initial aversion to a non-preferred context are more likely to form CPP.