Introduction and goal: Learning and motivational processes have been central for a modern understanding of tobacco addiction. There is evidence that supports the importance of incentive motivational processes for the maintenance of tobacco addiction. The main goal of the present experiment was to evaluate the effects of acute nicotine on the incentive value of a natural reward, (food) paired with an environmental cue (pressing lever). Method: Wistar rats were used. Accute nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) was administered on key sessions, using a pavlovian autoshaping procedure involving ten acquisition and four extinction sessions. The experimental design included three groups, a saline administration control group and groups with specific nicotine administration during either acquisition or extinction. Results: We found that acute administration of nicotine, in contrast with saline only or previous nicotine administration during acquisition, had an enhancing effect on responding for the environmental cue during autoshaping extinction, but we did not find evidence that acute nicotine affected acquisition performance. Conclusion: Our results are consistent with a role of nicotine enhancing the incentive value of stimuli during extinction from a pavlovian autoshaping task.

Keywords:
Autoshaping, acquisition, extinction, nicotine, incentive motivation

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