Conditioned place preference and conditioned place aversion in goldfish

Some drugs possess reinforcing properties, which are commonly studied using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. CPP has been applied across a wide range of taxa, including nonmammalian vertebrates and invertebrates. In the present study, goldfish were used as an experimental model to examine CPP induced by nicotine, a substance that remains a major public health concern. Nicotine produced CPP at lower doses and conditioned place aversion (CPA) at higher doses. One advantage of fish models is the feasibility of drug administration by immersion, an animal-friendly alternative to injection. However, because intraperitoneal injection is the standard method in rodent studies, quantitative comparisons of dose-response relationships across taxa are difficult. To address this issue, I compared the dose-response relationship of general activity following nicotine administration by immersion with that following intraperitoneal injection in goldfish. Based on this comparison, a conversion factor between the two administration procedures was estimated. Using this conversion, nicotine-induced CPP and CPA in goldfish were quantitatively compared with findings from rodent studies. These results contribute to cross-species evaluation of drug reinforcement and support the utility of fish models in behavioral pharmacology.