Animal Models of Addiction

Animal models of drug addiction have provided crucial insights into the associative learning, functional neuroanatomical, and cellular mechanisms of substance use disorders. Historically, procedures focused on acquisition and maintenance of consummatory and motivated behaviors, as well as conditioned responses, that are associated with drug exposure, voluntary drug taking, and drug withdrawal. More recent efforts aimed to capture cardinal features of drug addiction, including the escalation of consummatory and motivated behaviors, the development of compulsive drug taking despite negative consequences, and increased reactivity to relapse triggers (environmental stimuli, stress, and small amounts of drug). This technical review provides a description of several addiction-related constructs and a critical analysis of various behavioral procedures used to probe the neurobiological underpinnings of drug addiction.