Induced tolerance to the discriminative stimulus properties of cocaine

Twenty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in five two-lever operant chambers on a DRL-15 sec schedule of positive food reinforcement to discriminate 10 mg/kg cocaine from 1 ml/kg saline. Following acquistions of discrimination a counterbalanced design of extinction tests was performed before and after repeated administration of 20 mg/kg cocaine or saline (three times a day at five hr intervals for seven days). The extinction tests consisted of testing responses of animals following 1 ml/kg saline, 2.5 mg/kg cocaine, or 5 mg/kg cocaine. The results showed no significant difference in animals' level choice before and after repeated injection with saline. However, the percent cocaine lever choice with the two doses of cocaine was lower after repeated administration of cocaine than before the repeated injections. This indicates tolerance developed to the discriminative stimulus properties of cocaine.