Abstract
Drug reinforcement is a form of behavioral plasticity in which behavioral changes occur in response to acute exposure to a reinforcing drug. Drugs are classified as reinforcers if the probability of a drug-seeking response is in creased when the response is temporally paired with drug exposure. Such rapid and powerful associations between a drug reinforcer and a drug-seeking re sponse probably reflect the drug's ability to directly modulate preexisting brain-reinforcement systems. These preexisting systems normally mediate the reinforcement produced by natural reinforcers such as food, sex, and social interaction. Upon acute exposure most abused drugs function as positive rein forcers, presumably because they produce a positive affective state (e.g. eu phoria). Chronic exposure to reinforcing drugs can lead to drug addiction, which is also characterized by an increase in drug-seeking behavior. Clinically, this sustained increase in drug-seeking behavior (Le. craving) is a core feature of drug addiction. However, unlike drug reinforcement in nonaddicted subjects, addicted subjects exhibit a sustained increase in drug-seeking behavior even when the drug is absent or withdrawn. In some of these situations drugs can function as negative reinforcers in that they offer relief from a negative affec tive state (e.g. dysphoria). Since acute drug reinforcement and the addicted state are both characterized by an increase in drug-seeking behavior, common
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