The role of context in re-acquisition of extinguished alcoholic beer-seeking

We studied the role of context in reacquisition of extinguished reward-seeking. Rats were trained to respond for alcoholic beer, then extinguished and retrained. Reacquisition was faster than acquisition regardless of whether retraining occurred in the original training context, the extinction context, a novel context, or a context with a mixed history of reinforcement. Reacquisition was also rapid after extended extinction training. Nonetheless, context did significantly influence reacquisition via affecting latency to first response: rats took significantly longer to initiate responding when tested in the extinction context. These results suggest that reacquisition of drug and reward seeking is determined by an inhibitory influence caused by the extinction context and a facilitatory influence caused by reintroduction of the reinforcer (Bouton, 1993).