Figure 3.

DCS enhances the extinction of conditioned food avoidance in mice. (a) The mice were trained to nose poke for food reinforcers. (b) Food reinforcers were paired with LiCl, inducing temporary gastric malaise and reducing food consumption (that is, conditioned aversion). (c) Accordingly, nose-poke rates associated with the food pellets dropped when mice were returned to the conditioning chambers. Immediately following this extinction session, the mice were treated with vehicle or DCS. In other words, plots a–c represent naive animals, subsequently assigned to either vehicle (placebo) or DCS, plotted separately to confirm no differences in baseline acquisition of either the task or conditioned aversion. (d) DCS significantly enhanced food-reinforced nose-poke rates above extinction baseline (100%, represented by the dashed gray line), and this persisted even when treatment was discontinued. n=9 per group. (a′–d′) These represent an independent replication of the same effect, despite typical behavioral variabilities between independent cohorts. n=10–11 per group. (e) In both humans (left) and rodents (right), DCS acted rapidly, with group divergences by meal 2 (the first post-DCS session in the mouse, session 1 in d′). Mean+s.e.m., **P<0.00. DCS, d-cycloserine.