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Updated: May 18, 2026

A Procedure to Observe Context-induced Renewal of Pavlovian-conditioned Alcohol-seeking Behavior in Rats
Published on: September 19, 2014
Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript in the nucleus accumbens shell attenuates context-induced reinstatement
E Zayra Millan1, Gavan P McNally
1School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Abstract:
We investigated the impact of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) in the nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) on context-induced reinstatement of alcoholic beer-seeking. Rats were trained to respond for 4% (vol/vol) alcoholic beer in one context (A) followed by extinction in a second context (B). Rats were subsequently tested for renewal of extinguished responding in the training context (A). Return to the training context elicited responding (reinstatement), whereas intra-AcbSh injections of CART (55-102) attenuated reinstatement without affecting general behavioral activity (Experiment 1). CART (55-102) attenuated reinstatement dose-dependently across the 0.025 - 2.5 μg range (Experiment 2), and no effect was observed with the inactive CART (1-27) fragment (Experiment 3). Together, these findings suggest that intra-AcbSh CART (55-102) modulates the impact of drug-associated environments on reward seeking behavior.
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