Context evoked morphine conditioned effects can be equivalent to morphine induced drug effects in terms of behavioral response and ERK activation in reward associated subcortical brain structures.

Conditioned drug cues can evoke brief drug-like responses. In this report we show that using brief test sessions, contextual cues can induce conditioned hyperlocomotion and ERK responses equivalent to morphine induced responses. To assess acute unconditioned effects, rats that received morphine (MOR-1) or vehicle (VEH-1) were immediately placed onto an arena for a 5-min locomotion recording session after which ERK was measured in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). There were no differences in locomotion between the groups. However, the MOR-1 group had strong ERK activation in VTA and NAc. To assess MOR-conditioned effects, a chronic phase was carried out according to a Pavlovian conditioning protocol. There were two MOR paired groups (MORP), one MOR unpaired (MOR-UP) group and two VEH groups. The treatments were administered over 5 daily five minute test sessions. The final conditioning test was on day 6, in which one of the MOR-P groups and one of the VEH groups received VEH (MOR-P/VEH-6 and VEH/VEH-6, respectively). The other MOR-P group and VEH group received MOR (MOR-P/MOR; VEH/MOR-6, respectively). The MOR-UP group received VEH (MOR-UP/VEH-6). Rats received the treatments immediately prior to a 5-minute arena test, and after the session ERK was measured. No morphine induced locomotor stimulation was observed on day 1 but on days 2 to 5, hyperlocomotion in both MOR-P groups occurred. On test day 6, the MOR-P/VEH-6 and the MOR-P/MOR-6 groups had comparable locomotor stimulant responses and similar ERK activity in the VTA and NAc. The MOR-UP group did not differ from the VEH group. We suggest that ERK activation evoked by acute morphine served as a Pavlovian unconditioned stimulus to enable the contextual cues to acquire morphine conditioned stimulus properties and increase the incentive value of the contextual cues.
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