The development of a reliable measure of the level of ethanol-seeking behav
ior in an animal model is important to understanding the concept of craving
. However, most existing models do not allow for the separation of the beha
vior associated with obtaining ethanol from that involved in consumption of
ethanol. In this study, we determined the ability of repeated, single-sess
ion extinction tests in an appetitive and consummatory procedure of ethanol
self-administration to assess the level of seeking behavior. The findings
indicated that there were no major effects of previous extinction trials on
later trials, when there were at least four reinforced sessions between te
sts. During reinforced sessions, the rats were consuming an average of 0.80
g of ethanol per kilogram of body weight in less than 20 min from a sipper
tube. In addition, the amount of extinction responding was found to be sim
ilar to a previous measure of the appetitive strength of ethanol by using a
breakpoint procedure. This method of repeated extinction tests seems to be
valuable for examining the effects of pharmacological treatments that migh
t alter ethanol seeking. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved
.