BACKGROUND We recently reported that operant social choice-induced voluntary abstinence prevents incubation of methamphetamine craving. Here, we determined whether social choice-induced voluntary abstinence would prevent incubation of heroin craving. We also introduce a fully automatic social reward self-administration model that eliminates the intense workload and rat-human interaction of the original semiautomatic model. METHODS In experiment 1, we trained male and female rats for social self-administration (6 days) and then for heroin self-administration (12 days). Next, we assessed relapse to heroin seeking after 1 and 15 abstinence days. Between tests, the rats underwent either forced or social choice-induced abstinence. In experiment 2, we developed a fully automatic social self-administration procedure by introducing a screen between the self-administration chamber and the social-peer chamber; the screen allows physical contact but prevents rats from crossing chambers. Next, we compared incubation of craving in rats with a history of standard (no-screen) or automatic (screen) social self-administration and social choice-induced abstinence. RESULTS The time-dependent increase in heroin seeking after cessation of drug self-administration (incubation of craving) was lower after social choice-induced abstinence than after forced abstinence. There were no differences in social self-administration, social choice-induced abstinence, and incubation of craving in rats trained in the standard semiautomatic procedure versus the novel fully automatic procedure. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates the protective effect of rewarding social interaction on heroin self-administration and incubation of heroin craving and introduces a fully automatic social self-administration and choice procedure to investigate the role of volitional social interaction in drug addiction and other psychiatric disorders.

中文翻译：

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操作性社会奖励减少了雄性和雌性大鼠对海洛因渴望的潜伏期

背景我们最近报道了操作性社会选择诱导的自愿戒断可以防止对甲基苯丙胺的渴望。在这里，我们确定了社会选择引起的自愿禁欲是否会阻止海洛因渴望的孵化。我们还引入了一种全自动社会奖励自我管理模型，它消除了原始半自动模型的繁重工作量和鼠人交互。方法在实验1中，我们训练雄性和雌性大鼠进行社交自我给药（6天），然后进行海洛因自我给药（12天）。接下来，我们评估了在 1 天和 15 天禁欲后对海洛因寻求的复发情况。在测试之间，大鼠经历了强迫或社会选择诱导的禁欲。在实验 2 中，我们通过在自我管理室和社会同伴室之间引入一个屏幕，开发了一个全自动的社会自我管理程序；屏幕允许身体接触，但防止老鼠穿过房间。接下来，我们比较了具有标准（无筛查）或自动（筛查）社会自我管理史和社会选择诱导的禁欲史的大鼠渴望的孵化。结果 社会选择诱导的禁欲后，停止自我给药（渴望的孵化）后海洛因寻求的时间依赖性增加低于强迫禁欲后。在标准半自动程序与新型全自动程序中训练的大鼠中，社会自我管理、社会选择引起的禁欲和渴望的孵化没有差异。