Abstract
Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) is an operant conditioning procedure used to quantify the brain reward function. Thus, this procedure allows us to study the effects of behavioral, pharmacological, or molecular manipulations on the reward circuit. In the context of drug abuse and addiction, ICSS is generally used to test the abuse potential of drugs and to evaluate the aversive effect induced by withdrawal from chronic drug exposure. There are two main methods to assess the effect of a drug on brain stimulation reward: the discrete trial current intensity paradigm and the frequency-rate curve-shift paradigm. However, this chapter describes specifically the frequency-rate curve-shift paradigm in rats. The purpose of this section is to provide the reader with how to perform the frequency-rate curve-shift paradigm with several types of drug exposure.
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Hodebourg, R. (2021). Intracranial Self-Stimulation: Using the Curve-Shift Paradigm to Assess the Abuse Potential of Drugs. In: Fakhoury, M. (eds) The Brain Reward System. Neuromethods, vol 165. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1146-3_10
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