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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with increased risk of tobacco dependence. Nicotine, the main psychoactive component of tobacco, appears to be implicated in ADHD-related tobacco dependence. However, the behavioral responsiveness to nicotine of the prevalent animal model of ADHD, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), is currently underinvestigated. The present study examined the activational effects of acute and chronic nicotine on the behavior of adult male SHRs, relative to Wistar Kyoto (WKY) controls. Experiment 1 verified baseline strain differences in open-field locomotor activity. Experiment 2 tested for baseline strain differences in rotational behavior using a Rotorat apparatus. Adult SHR and WKY rats were then exposed to a 7-day regimen of 0.6 mg/kg/d s.c. nicotine, or saline, prior to each assessment. A separate group of SHRs underwent similar training, but was pre-treated with mecamylamine, a cholinergic antagonist. Nicotine sensitization, context conditioning, and mecamylamine effects were then tested. Baseline strain differences were observed in open-field performance and in the number of full rotations in the Rotorat apparatus, but not in the number of 90° rotations or direction changes. In these latter measures, SHRs displayed weaker nicotine-induced rotational suppression than WKYs. Both strains expressed nicotine-induced sensitization of rotational activity, but evidence for strain differences in sensitization was ambiguous; context conditioning was not observed. Mecamylamine reversed the effects of nicotine on SHR performance. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that a reduced aversion to nicotine (expressed in rats as robust locomotion) may facilitate smoking among adults with ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for tobacco use and dependence. This study examines the responsiveness to nicotine of an adolescent model of ADHD, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). The conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure was used to assess nicotine-induced locomotion and conditioned reward in SHR and the Wistar Kyoto (WKY) control strain over a range of nicotine doses (0.0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg). Prior to conditioning, SHRs were more active and less biased toward one side of the CPP chamber than WKY rats. Following conditioning, SHRs developed CPP to the highest dose of nicotine (0.6 mg/kg), whereas WKYs did not develop CPP to any nicotine dose tested. During conditioning, SHRs displayed greater locomotor activity in the nicotine-paired compartment than in the saline-paired compartment across conditioning trials. SHRs that received nicotine (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 mg/kg) in the nicotine-paired compartment showed an increase in locomotor activity between conditioning trials. Nicotine did not significantly affect WKY locomotor activity. These findings suggest that the SHR strain is a suitable model for studying ADHD-related nicotine use and dependence, but highlights potential limitations of the WKY control strain and the CPP procedure for modeling ADHD-related nicotine reward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Response inhibition capacity (RIC), the ability to withhold instrumentally reinforced responses, is compromised in ADHD. Most standard methods for assessing RIC in rodents potentially confound motivational, motor, learning, and inhibitory processes, lack sensitivity to pharmacological treatment, and have unknown reliability. New method The fixed minimum interval (FMI) schedule of reinforcement and its associated analytical techniques are designed to dissociate inhibitory processes from incentive-motivational and timing processes. This study is aimed at validating the FMI as a method for assessing RIC in animal models. FMI performance was compared across different withholding requirements (0.5, 3, 6 and 21 s), deprivation levels, reinforcement rates, and reinforcer magnitudes. Results and comparison with existing methods Motivational manipulations differentially affected estimates of incentive motivation but not the FMI-derived index of RIC, θ . Changes in the withholding requirement influenced timed IRTs in a manner consistent with extant timing theories. Individual estimates of RIC were resilient to prolonged changes in motivation but not to changes in FMI schedule. Results indicate that the FMI schedule is not vulnerable to the same limitations associated with existing methods for assessing RIC. Conclusions These results support the use of the FMI schedule and associated analytic techniques as tools for assessing RIC in animal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the evidence for nicotine-induced acceleration of the internal clock when timing in the seconds-to-minutes timescale, and proposes an alternative explanation to this evidence: that nicotine reduces the threshold for responses that result in more reinforcement. These two hypotheses were tested in male Wistar rats using a novel timing task. In this task, rats were trained to seek food at one location after 8 s since trial onset and at a different location after 16 s. Some rats received the same reward at both times (group SAME); some received a larger reward at 16 s (group DIFF). Steady baseline performance was followed by 3 days of subcutaneous nicotine administration (0.3 mg/kg), baseline recovery, and an antagonist challenge (mecamylamine, 1.0 mg/kg). Nicotine induced a larger, immediate reduction in latencies to switch (LTS) in group DIFF than in group SAME. This effect was sustained throughout nicotine administration. Mecamylamine pretreatment and nicotine discontinuation rapidly recovered baseline performance. These results support a response-threshold account of nicotinic disruption of timing performance, possibly mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. A detailed analysis of the distribution of LTSs suggests that anomalous effects of nicotine on LTS dispersion may be due to loss of temporal control of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]