Expanded summary at 6th grade reading level: This study looked at how two different drugs, mitragynine and morphine, can affect the behavior of rats. The researchers trained the rats to prefer one side of a box over the other by giving them the drugs in that side. After the rats learned this preference, the researchers stopped giving them the drugs and saw that the preference went away.
Then, the researchers gave the rats small amounts of the drugs again. They found that this brought
back the rats’ preference for the side of the box where they had received the drugs before. This
shows that even after the rats stopped getting the drugs, they still had a strong memory or “craving”
for them. The researchers did this experiment with both mitragynine and morphine, and found that each drug could bring back the preference for the other drug.
This study was done in a lab, using rats as the subjects
Key takeaways:
- Rats can develop a preference for places where they receive drugs like mitragynine and morphine.
- Even after the rats stop getting the drugs, small amounts can bring back their preference for those places.
- The drugs can cross-reinstate each other’s effects, meaning mitragynine can bring back a preference for morphine, and vice versa.
- This shows that these drugs can have powerful effects on the brain and behavior, even after use has stopped.
For further reading:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432822003887
Full Citation:
Japarin, R. A., Yusoff, N. H., Hassan, Z., Mller, C. P., & Harun, N. (2023). Corrigendum to Cross-reinstatement of mitragynine and morphine place preference in rats [Behav. Brain Res. 399 (2021) 113021]. Behavioural Brain Research, 437, 114155
