The conditioned place preference/aversion experiment is the gold standard experimental model for evaluating psychiatric dependence on medications. Ace Therapeutics offers clients high-quality conditioned place preference tests to help them assess the addiction potential and dependence of potential antipsychotics.

Introduction of Conditional Place Preference/Aversion Experiments

The conditioning place preference experiment involved placing the experimental animals (rats and mice) in the white observation area of the conditioning position preference box and administering a psychoactive drug. The animals were then observed in the black and white areas of the conditioning position preference box. The apparatus included small doors between the white, black, and gray zones, allowing the animals to move freely between the zones. Each time the animals were in the administered zone, they demonstrated a positional preference for the black and white zones in response to the rewarding effects of the drug. The extent of this preference correlated with the psycho-dependence of the drug.

Conditioned place aversion experiments typically utilize mice to study their aversion to a particular position. The experiment is also typically divided into two phases: a training phase and a testing phase. In the training phase, mice are placed in a specific location and associated with some unpleasant stimulus (e.g., an electric shock or a bad odor). In the test phase, the mice are placed in two different positions, one of which is associated with a stimulus from the training phase and the other is not. Observing which position a mouse chooses reflects its aversion to the training position.

Analytical Metrics for Conditional Place Preference/Aversion Experimental Procedures

• Behavioral indicators of conditioned position preference experiments in mice:

• Preference index: The preference index is an indicator of the proportion of mice choosing a preferred location minus the proportion choosing a non-preferred location, and is usually calculated during the testing phase. A positive preference index indicates a preference for the preferred location, a negative preference index indicates an aversion to the preferred location, and a zero preference index indicates no preference for either location.
• Reversal time: if the experiment changes the preferred location or the stimulus associated with the location during the training phase, the reversal time is the time it takes for the mice to adapt to the new condition.

• Behavioral indices of conditioned place aversion experiments in mice

• Avoidance index: The avoidance index is an index obtained by subtracting the proportion of mice choosing the non-training position from the proportion choosing the training position, and is usually calculated during the testing phase. A positive avoidance index indicates that the mice have an aversion to the training location, a negative index indicates that the mice have a preference for the training location, and a zero index indicates that the mice have no preference or aversion to either location.
• Freezing behavior: During the training phase, mice may exhibit freezing behavior, which is a typical stress response that is usually manifested by the mice temporarily stopping their actions and freezing in place. The presence of freezing behavior can indicate that the mice are having an unpleasant experience with the training location, leading to an increase in their avoidance of the location during the testing phase.

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