Generalization of a positive-feature interoceptive morphine occasion setter across the rat estrous cycle.

Introduction: Interoceptive stimuli elicited by drug administration acquire conditioned modulatory properties of the induction of conditioned appetitive behaviours by exteroceptive cues. This effect may be modeled using a drug discrimination task in which the drug stimulus is trained as a positive-feature (FP) occasion setter (OS) that disambiguates the relation between an exteroceptive light conditioned stimulus (CS) and a sucrose unconditioned stimulus (US). We previously reported that females are less sensitive to generalization of a FP morphine OS than males, so we investigated the role of endogenous ovarian hormones in this difference.

Sex Differences in the Behavioural Outcomes of Prenatal Nicotine and Tobacco Exposure.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. A combination of biological and environmental risk factors make women especially vulnerable to nicotine addiction, making it harder for them to quit smoking. Smoking during pregnancy, therefore, is still a major health concern, with epidemiological data suggesting a role for gestational nicotine exposure in the development of several behavioural disorders.