Formation of Alcohol Motivation in Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Kept in Isolation

• Published in: Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine 2019-08, Vol.167 (4), p.516-520
• Main Authors: Shmaliy, A. V., Pavlova, L. E., Chuguev, Yu. P., Kolik, L. G., Kovalenko, V. V., Seredenin, S. B., Lapin, B. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alcohol; Alcohol Drinking; Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Analysis; Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell Biology; Drinking of alcoholic beverages; Drug dependence; Environmental factors; Ethanol; Flavor; Food; Internal Medicine; Laboratory Medicine; Macaca mulatta; Male; Monkeys & apes; Motivation; Motivation - physiology; Pathology; Primates; Primatology; Reinforcement; Reinforcement, Psychology
• ISSN: 0007-4888; 1573-8221
• DOI: 10.1007/s10517-019-04563-4

The effects of environmental factors (flavors, different ethanol concentration, alcoholic deprivation, and food reinforcement) on the formation of alcohol motivation was studied in rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta , n =6). Motivation for alcohol intake was induced in two stages: initiation (sessions 1-160) and formation of motivation (sessions 161-516). Monkeys preferred multifruit flavor and 4% ethanol solution, while ethanol deprivation did not stimulate alcohol consumption. The pronounced individual differences in the pattern of alcohol motivation were revealed: the intake of 4% ethanol solution ranged from 0.21±0.03 to 0.43±0.06 g/kg without food reinforcement and increased from 0.78±0.03 to 1.22±0.09 g/kg with food reinforcement. The results suggest that the proposed method is valid and can be used as an experimental model of alcohol dependence in non-human primates.