Cues associated with alcohol produce craving in alcoholics and contribute to relapse following abstinence. Incentive-motivational accounts posit that such cues acquire the positive incentive value of drugs. As such, these cues can function similarly to drugs and maintain drug seeking themselves (i.e., function as conditioned reinforcers). However, factors affecting the reinforcing efficacy of drug cues are poorly understood because of methodological shortcomings. Behavioral economics provides a way to account for the reinforcing effects of drugs (including alcohol) and may contribute to understanding conditioned reinforcement by alcohol cues. Behavioral economics integrates factors affecting drug consumption with the demand law: the quantity of drug consumed is inversely related to its unit price (i.e., cost/benefit ratio). The demand law describes changes in drug self-administration occurring with changes in unit price produced by changes in response requirement (i.e., cost) or drug dose (i.e., benefit). Behavioral economics provides a powerful tool for understanding and treating drug and alcohol dependence and may aid in understanding the reinforcing effects of alcohol cues. The proposed research alms to (1) adapt a procedure that has successfully overcome typical methodological shortcomings in the study of non-drug conditioned reinforcement to overcome problems in the study of the conditioned reinforcing effects of alcohol cues and, (2) use this procedure to examine the behavioral economics of alcohol cues. In Exp. 1, rats will self-administer alcohol in an observing-response procedure which allows the independent examination of factors contributing to reinforcement by alcohol and to conditioned reinforcement by alcohol cues. Exps. 2 and 3 will use the observing-response procedure to determine how the unit price of alcohol affects the reinforcing efficacy of alcohol cues by manipulating the response requirement for alcohol (Exp. 2) or the magnitude of alcohol reinforcement (Exp. 3). Integrating alcohol cues into behavioral economics is important because behavioral economics has demonstrated utility in assessing and devising treatments for drug abuse. With this potential integration, the proposed research may aid in assessing combined behavioral/pharmacological treatments targeting alcohol cues, and therefore craving and relapse. In addition, the observing-response procedure adapted for these studies may provide a powerful tool for investigating the neuropharmacological mechanisms of alcohol cues.
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