Research Data supporting "Saccharin fading is not required for the acquisition of alcohol self-administration, and can alter the dynamics of cue-alcohol memory reconsolidation"

The shared files contain the data all behavioural data described in the paper. Briefly, rats were trained to orally self-administer 10% ethanol by lever pressing to receive the ethanol reinforcer. Half of the rats had been previously exposed to sweetened ethanol in the saccharin fading procedure, while half of the rats were naive. All animals were assessed for their ability to acquire self-administration of oral ethanol in the presence of a pavlovian light cue that was paired with alcohol delivery. 72hrs after the end of training, all rats were reminded of the cue-ethanol memory in a brief 'memory reactivation' session, prior to which they received injections of the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 or vehicle. 72hrs after this session, all rats were tested for the capacity of the previously alcohol-paired cue to support cue-induced reinstatement of ethanol-seeking. Three weeks after this test, all animals were given three 'rebaselining' sessions on ethanol self-administration, before undergoing an extinction session in which responding on the lever produced neither the cue, nor the ethanol reinforcer. 24hrs after this, they underwent another cue-induced reinstatement test. Finally, all rats were assessed for their voluntary ethanol consumption and preference using the 2-bottle choice procedure. Data from all of the above stages of the experiment are reported in the Excel spreadsheets, with accompanying metadata in a Word document