Conditioned inhibition of cocaine seeking in rats.

Despite its potential relevance to the treatment of drug abuse, conditioned inhibition of drug seeking has not been systematically investigated before. In this study, rats could self-administer cocaine by lever pressing whenever a click or tone was present. Responding was not reinforced when a light was present. The light was presented simultaneously with the click (i.e., in an excitatory context) in 1 group, but the light was always presented alone in another group. When it was later presented in compound with the tone, the light was a highly effective conditioned inhibitor, suppressing cocaine seeking by 92% in the former group and by 74% in the latter. These results suggest ways to improve cue-oriented behavioral treatments for drug abuse.