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

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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