| Title: |
A procedure to identify persistent and effort‐independent individual differences in preference for heroin over rewarding social interaction |
| Authors: |
D'Ottavio, Ginevra; Sullivan, Alana; Pezza, Sara; Ruano, Maria Chiara; Modoni, Jacopo; Reverte, Ingrid; Marchetti, Claudia; Zenoni, Soami F.; Venniro, Marco; Milella, Michele S.; Boix, Fernando; Shaham, Yavin; Caprioli, Daniele |
| Contributors: |
D'Ottavio, Ginevra; Sullivan, Alana; Pezza, Sara; Ruano, Maria Chiara; Modoni, Jacopo; Reverte, Ingrid; Marchetti, Claudia; Zenoni, Soami F.; Venniro, Marco; Milella, Michele S.; Boix, Fernando; Shaham, Yavin; Caprioli, Daniele |
| Publisher Information: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc; 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
Sapienza Università di Roma: CINECA IRIS |
| Subject Terms: |
addiction; animal model; discrete choice; individual difference; opioid; social |
| Description: |
Background and Purpose: In some individuals, opioid use leads to decreased interest in socially relevant rewards. Recent studies showed that after extended-access heroin self-administration, rats strongly prefer social interaction over single unit-dose heroin infusions. We hypothesized that this strong social preference results from access to a suboptimal heroin dose during testing, and individual differences in heroin versus social choice would emerge if rats were given access to their ‘preferred’ heroin dose. Experimental Approach: In Experiment 1, we trained male rats to lever-press for social interaction, followed by heroin self-administration under continuous-access, no-timeout schedule, which promotes burst-patterned heroin taking. We then tested the rats for choice between single-unit heroin dose and 1-min full-contact social interaction, or 5-min heroin-access (sufficient for burst-patterned heroin taking) and 5-min social interaction. In Experiment 2, we extended the 5-min access procedure to female rats and tested heroin versus limited-contact (screen-based) social interaction. We also manipulated response requirements (effort) for heroin. Key Results: Rats given a single-unit heroin dose during choice testing, strongly preferred social interaction. In rats given 5-min heroin-access, large individual differences in heroin preference emerged. These differences were independent of sex, social-interaction conditions and effort manipulations. High heroin intake and burst-patterned heroin taking during self-administration, and high heroin seeking during abstinence predicted individual differences in heroin preference. Conclusion and Implications: Access to ‘preferred’ heroin doses during the choice tests leads to stable and effort-independent individual differences in heroin preference. This procedure provides a platform to study mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability to opioid addiction. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/40702952; info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:001539491900001; journal:BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY; https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1744460 |
| DOI: |
10.1111/bph.70125 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1744460; https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.70125 |
| Rights: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ; license:Creative commons ; license uri:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.F438CD55 |
| Database: |
BASE |