Figure. 1.

Visual depiction of experimental design. A between subjects design (n = 31) was used to assess how the presence of reward-associated cues and rimonabant pretreatment impacts the dopaminergic deficits that follow METH administration. Animals in the different groups, FOOD+METH, FOOD+RIMO+METH, Food+Saline were shaped for 4 days, then maintained on hourly food-maintained responding sessions for seven days. On the following day animals were administered drugs, given one day of rest and returned to hourly sessions for seven days. Voltammetric experiments were then performed. T h e NoFOOD+METH group was not conditioned to lever press for food, was given food only in home cages and received vehicle pretreatment and METH administration; FOOD+Saline group was conditioned to lever press for food and received vehicle pretreatment and saline administration. FOOD+METH group was conditioned to lever press for food and received vehicle pretreatment and METH administration (25 mg/kg IP); FOOD+RIMO+METH group was conditioned to lever press for food and received rimonabant (3 mg/kg) pretreatment followed by METH. NoFOOD+METH group received equal exposure to the same environment with cues associated with reward, but lever press did not dispense food.