Modeling Relapse to Pavlovian Alcohol-Seeking in Rats Using Reinstatement and Spontaneous Recovery Paradigms.

Background: Animal models are critical for studying causal explanations of relapse. Using a Pavlovian conditioning procedure with alcohol, we examined relapse after extinction triggered by either re-exposure to alcohol (reinstatement) or a delay between extinction and test (spontaneous recovery).

Methods: Male, Long-Evans rats were acclimated to 15% alcohol in the home-cage using an intermittent-access 2-bottle choice procedure.