Triggered temptations: A new procedure to compare reward-seeking behaviour induced by discriminative and conditioned stimuli in rats.

Rationale: Environmental cues guide animals towards resources vital for survival but can also drive maladaptive reward-seeking behaviours, as in gambling and eating disorders. While conditioned stimuli (CSs) are paired with reward delivery after reward-seeking actions, discriminative stimuli (DSs) signal reward availability independently of behaviour.

Objective: We introduce a procedure to compare CS and DS effects on reward-seeking behaviour, in the same subjects within a single session.