Alcohol & Sucrose Reward Sensitivity in Animal Model of Addiction: A Proposal for the Center for Undergraduate Research Scholarship

A genetic predisposition to addictive behaviors can often be attributed to mesolimbic dopamine deficiencies. Using rat animal models, addictive behavior and incentive contrast were explored using alcohol-preferring rats (P) and alcohol-non-preferring Wistar rats. It is expected that Wistar rats will demonstrate typical incentive contrast with the presentation of sucrose (favorable) and ethanol (aversive) exposure. P rats are hypothesized to display impaired incentive contrast. Rats were tested on 20s, 10s, and 5s trial access to sucrose or ethanol. Trial regimen shifts were present to create positive or negative contrast. The consumptive data of sucrose and ethanol for the aforementioned programs were analyzed using ANOVA and pairwise comparisons. Some statistically significant differences/trends were found between P Rat and Wistar with incentive contrast shifts. However, general predicted patterns were observed. This preliminary data indicates that genetic variance influences incentive contrast behavior in some respects.