Short communicationSign- vs. goal-tracking in a feature positive discrimination task with nicotine: Importance of spatial location of the conditional stimulus

We assessed whether sign-tracking developed along with goal-tracking in a Pavlovian drug discrimination task. Rats had nicotine sessions intermixed with saline sessions. For nicotine sessions, 15-s illumination of a light near (Experiment 1) or far (Experiment 2) from the dipper receptacle was followed by sucrose. Saline sessions were similar to nicotine sessions except sucrose was withheld. Regardless of location, the light evoked goal-tracking only on nicotine sessions. Only rats with the light near the dipper developed sign-tracking.

Research highlights▶ Nicotine was discriminable from saline in a Pavlovian drug discrimination task. ▶ This was evidenced by only nicotine modulating responding to a 15-s light cue. ▶ Sign-tracking or goal-tracking were seen when the cue was near the sucrose US. ▶ Only goal-tracking was observed if the light cue was far from the sucrose US. ▶ Moving that far cue near the sucrose did not increase the sign tracking.