Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural Analysis
Published on: November 8, 2024
Amphetamine primes enhanced motivation toward uncertain choices in rats with genetic alcohol preference
Ville Oinio1,2, Mikko Sundström3, Pia Bäckström4
1Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, 00014, Helsinki, Finland. ville.oinio@helsinki.fi.
Rationale:
Comorbidity with gambling disorder (GD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is well documented.
Objective:
The purpose of our study was to examine the influence of genetic alcohol drinking tendency on reward-guided decision making behavior of rats and the impact of dopamine releaser D-amphetamine on this behavior.
Methods:
In this study, Alko alcohol (AA) and Wistar rats went through long periods of operant lever pressing training where the task was to choose the profitable of two options. The lever choices were guided by different-sized sucrose rewards (one or three pellets), and the probability of gaining the larger reward was slowly changed to a level where choosing the smaller reward would be the most profitable in the long run. After training, rats were injected (s.c.) with dopamine releaser D-amphetamine (0.3, 1.0 mg/kg) to study the impact of rapid dopamine release on this learned decision making behavior.
Results:
Administration of D-amphetamine promoted unprofitable decision making of AA rats more robustly when compared to Wistar rats. At the same time, D-amphetamine reduced lever pressing responses. Interestingly, we found that this reduction in lever pressing was significantly greater in Wistar rats than in AA rats and it was not linked to motivation to consume sucrose.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that conditioning to the lever pressing in uncertain environments is more pronounced in AA than in Wistar rats and indicate that the reinforcing effects of a gambling-like environment act as a stronger conditioning factor for rats that exhibit a genetic tendency for high alcohol drinking.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Secondary Motives: Power Motivation and Achievement Motivation
Power motivation is characterized by the desire to influence, control, or have an impact on others. It is shaped by an individual's experiences, social environment, and cultural context. People with high power motivation are...
Secondary Motives: Affiliation Motivation and Aggression Motivation
Motivational Bias
Motivational Cycle
The cycle begins with a need. This need can arise from various conditions, such as hunger, thirst, or temperature changes. For instance, when an individual feels cold, their body...
CNS Stimulants: Cocaine, Amphetamines and Cannabinoids

