BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS OF CONDITIONED ALCOHOL CUES

与酒精相关的暗示会使酗酒者产生渴望，并有助于 禁欲后复发。激励性-激励性帐户假设 线索获得了药物的正向激励价值。因此，这些线索可以 起类似于毒品的作用并维持自身的药物寻找(即， 作为条件增强剂的作用)。然而，影响经济增长的因素 由于以下原因，人们对药物提示的增强效果知之甚少 方法上的缺陷。行为经济学提供了一种解释 用于药物(包括酒精)的增强作用，并可能有助于 理解酒精暗示的条件性强化。 行为经济学将影响药物消费的因素与 需求定律：药品消耗量与其单位成反比 价格(即成本/效益比)。需求定律描述了药品的变化 因单价变动而发生的自我管理 反应需求(即成本)或药物剂量(即效益)。 行为经济学为理解和治疗 药物和酒精依赖，并可能有助于理解强化 酒精暗示的影响。 这项拟议的研究有助于(1)调整一种已成功实施的程序 克服非药物研究中典型的方法学缺陷 条件性强化克服条件性研究中的问题 酒精暗示的强化效果，以及(2)使用此程序检查 酒精暗示的行为经济学。在实验中1、老鼠会自我管理 酒精在观察反应程序中允许独立的 酒精和酒精强化的因素的检查 酒精暗示的条件性强化。实验。2和3将使用 观察-反应程序，以确定酒精的单价如何 通过操纵反应影响酒精暗示的强化效果 对酒精的要求(例如2)或酒精强化的程度 (实验3)。 将酒精暗示整合到行为经济学中很重要，因为 行为经济学已经证明了它在评估和设计 药物滥用的治疗。有了这一潜在的整合，拟议的 研究可能有助于评估行为/药物联合治疗 瞄准酒精暗示，因此渴望和复发。此外， 适用于这些研究的观察反应程序可能会提供一个强大的 用于研究酒精线索的神经药理学机制的工具。

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.