Honors Program
University Honors
Date of Award
5-2022
Thesis Professor(s)
Matthew Palmatier
Thesis Professor Department
<--College of Arts and Sciences-->
Thesis Reader(s)
Gerald Deehan
Abstract
Although cannabis is widely consumed by humans for the intoxicating effects that are mediated by delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), pre-clinical models of THC self-administration have been difficult to establish. We hypothesized that THC may have reinforcement enhancing effects comparable to other drugs (e.g., nicotine and caffeine), which are also widely consumed by humans but difficult to establish as primary reinforcers in non-human animals. To investigate whether THC is a reinforcement enhancer, male (M, n=8) and female (F, n=8) rats were shaped to self-administer a reinforcing saccharin (SACC) solution (0.2% w/v) in standard operant chambers equipped with infrared beams to monitor locomotor activity. At baseline, we found a significant sex difference for active lever responses and reinforcers earned (F
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Withheld
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Radford, Anna, "The effects of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on responding for non-drug reinforcers in rats." (2022). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 671. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/671
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.