Conditioned Place Preference Reinstatement

CPP reinstatement models relapse by testing whether a drug priming injection, stress exposure, or conditioned cue can restore an extinguished place preference. After CPP is established and subsequently extinguished, the subject receives a triggering stimulus (typically a sub-threshold drug dose, footshock stress, or drug-associated cue) immediately before a free-access test session. Reinstatement is mediated by distinct but overlapping circuits: drug priming activates VTA-NAc dopamine projections, stress reinstates via corticotropin-releasing factor in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and cue reinstatement involves basolateral amygdala-to-prefrontal pathways.

The reinstatement score is the difference between the reinstated CPP score and the final extinction CPP score, with a positive value indicating restoration of preference. The magnitude of reinstatement relative to the original CPP score indicates the proportion of the drug memory that was reactivated. Transition counts during reinstatement help differentiate approach-motivated reinstatement from anxiety-driven side avoidance. Locomotor activity confirms that reinstatement reflects specific motivational changes rather than generalized behavioral activation from the priming stimulus.

ConductMaze integrates the full CPP acquisition-extinction-reinstatement workflow in a single protocol timeline, maintaining continuous subject tracking across phases. The system automatically computes reinstatement indices referenced to both extinction baseline and original CPP magnitude. The platform supports multiple reinstatement trigger types with configurable pre-session intervals for drug pharmacokinetics. Time-bin analysis within the reinstatement session reveals whether preference is immediate or emerges over time.