Differential effects of a food-based conditioned inhibitor on food- or cocaine-seeking behavior

The present experiment compared the effects of a food-based conditioned inhibitor on food seeking vs. cocaine seeking behavior. In two groups of rats, the A+/AB− Pavlovian conditioned inhibition procedure was used to create a conditioned inhibitor for food. Then, for one group of rats (Food–Food Group), a click stimulus was established as an operant discriminative stimulus (SD) for food-reinforced lever pressing. In the other group (Food–Cocaine Group), the click was established as an SD for cocaine self-administration. In testing, the putative inhibitor for food was simultaneously presented with the click for the first time in both groups. In the Food–Food Group, the food-based inhibitor suppressed responding occasioned by the click significantly more than did a neutral control stimulus. In contrast, in the Food–Cocaine Group, there was no difference in the amount of suppression produced by the food-based inhibitor and the control stimulus. These results suggest that the effects of food-based Pavlovian conditioned inhibitors are specific for food-motivated behavior and do not easily transfer to cocaine-motivated behavior.