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Characterization of operant social interaction in rats: effects of access duration, effort, peer familiarity, housing conditions, and choice between social interaction vs. food or remifentanil

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Abstract

Rationale and objective

Social factors play a critical role in drug addiction. We recently showed that rats will abstain from methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and remifentanil self-administration when given a choice between the addictive drug and operant social interaction. Here, we further characterized operant social interaction by determining the effects of access duration, effort, peer familiarity, and housing conditions. We also determined choice between social interaction vs. palatable food or remifentanil.

Methods

We first trained single-housed male and female rats to lever-press for social interaction with a sex- and age-matched peer. Next, we determined effects of access duration (3.75 to 240 s), effort (increasing fixed-ratio schedule requirements or progressive ratio schedule), peer familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar), and housing conditions (single vs. paired housing) on social self-administration. We also determined choice between social interaction vs. palatable food pellets or intravenous remifentanil (0, 1, 10 µg/kg/infusion).

Results

Increasing access duration to a peer decreased social self-administration under fixed ratio but not progressive ratio schedule; the rats showed similar preference for short vs. long access duration. Social self-administration under different fixed ratio requirements was higher in single-housed than in paired-housed rats and higher for a familiar vs. unfamiliar partner in single-housed but not paired-housed rats. Response rates of food-sated rats under increasing fixed-ratio requirements were higher for palatable food than for social interaction. The rats strongly preferred palatable food over social interaction and showed dose-dependent preference for social interaction vs. remifentanil.

Conclusions

We identified parameters influencing the reinforcing effects of operant social interaction and introduce a choice procedure sensitive to remifentanil self-administration dose.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of NIDA, a grant from NIDA [DA047976] (MV), and support from the NIH CCB fellowship (JJC & NJB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intramural Research Program, NIDA, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jonathan J. Chow, Nicholas J. Beacher, Jules M. Chabot, Marvellous Oke, Da-Ting Lin & Yavin Shaham

  2. Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Marco Venniro

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  1. Jonathan J. Chow
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  2. Nicholas J. Beacher
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  3. Jules M. Chabot
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  4. Marvellous Oke
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  6. Da-Ting Lin
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  7. Yavin Shaham
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Contributions

JJC, NJB, MV, DTL, and YS conceptualized the research. JJC, NJB, JMC, and MO performed the research and collected the data. JJC, JMC, and YS analyzed the data. JJC, NJB, and YS wrote the manuscript. All authors provided editorial comments and approved of the final version.

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Correspondence to Jonathan J. Chow or Yavin Shaham.

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Chow, J.J., Beacher, N.J., Chabot, J.M. et al. Characterization of operant social interaction in rats: effects of access duration, effort, peer familiarity, housing conditions, and choice between social interaction vs. food or remifentanil. Psychopharmacology 239, 2093–2108 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-022-06064-1

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