Brain regions associated with the acquisition of conditioned place preference for cocaine vs. social interaction

Rana El Rawas,Georg Dechant,Michael Fritz,Kai K. Kummer,Gerald Zernig,Sabine Klement,Alois Saria

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00063

Rana El Rawas, Georg Dechant + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00063

Copy DOI

Abstract

Positive social interaction could play an essential role in switching the preference of the substance dependent individual away from drug related activities. We have previously shown that conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine at the dose of 15 mg/kg and CPP for four 15-min episodes of social interaction were equally strong when rats were concurrently conditioned for place preference by pairing cocaine with one compartment and social interaction with the other. The aim of the present study was to investigate the differential activation of brain regions related to the reward circuitry after acquisition/expression of cocaine CPP or social interaction CPP. Our findings indicate that cocaine CPP and social interaction CPP activated almost the same brain regions. However, the granular insular cortex and the dorsal part of the agranular insular cortex were more activated after cocaine CPP, whereas the prelimbic cortex and the core subregion of the nucleus accumbens were more activated after social interaction CPP. These results suggest that the insular cortex appears to be potently activated after drug conditioning learning while activation of the prelimbic cortex—nucleus accumbens core projection seems to be preferentially involved in the conditioning to non-drug stimuli such as social interaction.

Highlights

Switching the preference of the substance dependent individual toward non-drug related activities remains one of the great challenges that confront drug dependence therapy
The granular insular cortex and the dorsal part of the agranular insular cortex were more activated after cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP), whereas the prelimbic cortex and the core subregion of the nucleus accumbens were more activated after social interaction CPP
In this study, we aimed to investigate if the acquisition and expression of CPP for cocaine vs. social interaction produced different brain activation patterns

Summary

Introduction

Switching the preference of the substance dependent individual toward non-drug related activities remains one of the great challenges that confront drug dependence therapy. We have previously shown that only four social interaction episodes (15 min each) with a male early-adult conspecific as an alternative (i.e., non-drug-associated) stimulus completely reversed conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine (15 mg/kg i.p.) and were even able to inhibit cocaine-induced reinstatement of cocaine CPP (Fritz et al, 2011a). These protective effects of social interaction were paralleled by effects on the brain circuitry known to be involved in drug reinforcement and reward. Touch (taction) appears to be the major rewarding sensory component of the composite stimulus “social interaction” (Kummer et al, 2011; Peartree et al, 2012)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion