OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the reinforcing effects of cocaine and social contact with an opposite-sex partner in male and female rats, and how these effects are modulated by ovarian hormones.
METHODS: Male and female rats were trained in a nonexclusive choice procedure in which cocaine and social contact with an opposite-sex partner were simultaneously available on concurrent progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement. To examine the effects of ovarian hormones related to estrous cycling, Experiment 1 used naturally cycling, gonadally intact females, whereas Experiment 2 used ovariectomized females, and estrus was artificially induced with exogenous hormones.
RESULTS: In both experiments, cocaine and social contact functioned as robust reinforcers, and there were no significant effects of biological sex or estrus status of the females. The positive reinforcing effects of both cocaine and social contact increased as a function of cocaine dose, indicating that contingent cocaine administration increases the reinforcing effects of social contact.
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that cocaine use among opposite-sex partners may enhance factors that contribute to social bonding.
目的:这项研究的目的是研究可卡因和与异性伴侣的社交接触对雄性和雌性大鼠的增强作用。以及卵巢激素如何调节这些作用。
方法:在非排他性选择程序中训练雄性和雌性大鼠,其中可卡因和与异性伴侣的社交接触可同时在并发的增强比例时间表中获得。为了检查与动情周期相关的卵巢激素的影响,实验1使用自然循环,性腺完整的女性,而实验2使用去卵巢的女性,用外源激素人工诱导发情。
结果:在两个实验中,可卡因和社会接触起到了强有力的增强作用,女性的生理性别或发情状态没有显着影响。可卡因和社会接触的积极增强作用随着可卡因剂量的增加而增加,表明临时可卡因管理增加了社会接触的强化效应。
结论:这些数据表明,异性伴侣使用可卡因可能会增强社会联系的因素。