EFFECT OF FOOD/TASTE PREFERENCES ON DRUG INTAKE

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The interaction of inborn and environmental determinants of the intake of alcohol and other drugs is poorly understood. Previous studies, including our own preliminary investigations, have shown that: (1) food deprivation causes significant changes in the self-administration of a variety of drugs (as well as changes in fat and sweet taste preference) in rats; (2) the preference of rats for high-fat diets and/or sweet taste is related to drug selfadministration; and (3) rats demonstrate great, innate inter-individual variability in their preference for high-fat diets and/or sweet taste. Therefore, we hypothesize that rats which differ in preference for high-fat or sweet ingesta will differ in oral self administration of alcohol, etonitazene, and cocaine. Furthermore, we hypothesize that food deprivation may have different effects on the drug self-administration of rats with different macronutrient or taste preferences. We will employ a single-bottle intake paradigm for initial investigations of the relationships between these diet preference variables and drug self-administration; more fine-grained analysis of the interactions of these variables will be performed with operant conditioning. If the hypothesized relationships between diet and taste preference and drug self-administration are confirmed, then further investigations into the relationship of taste and diet preferences and drug use in humans are indicated. Potentially, measures of taste response or diet preference could be used to screen for those at high risk for the development of excessive drug use.