Conditioned Place Preference - Extinction and Reinstatement Procedures - Reinstatement

Reinstatement

Reinstatement is a method used in animal testing procedures including CPP and self-administration. It is often used to model the behavior of drug relapse in humans, although its validity is a topic of debate. Reinstatement is the rapid reacquisition of an extinguished behavior, which is caused by either the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus, by stress, or by context cues. This shows that the process of extinction does not completely eliminate an association, since the association between the UCS and the CS can be rapidly reacquired. In the context of conditioned place preference, after a place preference has been extinguished, the behavior is said to be reintsated when the animal quickly reacquires their place preference after repeated extinction trials have caused the preference to be extinguished. This has implications for research on drug relapse. There are two main modes of action for which reinstatement is often tested in the conditioned place preference paradigm. One is by introducing the animal (generally rats or mice are used) to stress. The other is by giving them a small dose of the unconditioned stimulus. In the case of CPP, when drugs are used to establish conditioned place preference, this is called drug priming.