An Extinction Retrieval Cue Attenuates Renewal But Not Reacquisition of Alcohol Seeking

The retrieval of extinction memories is dependent on contextual cues associated with extinction training. Various forms of response restoration after extinction, such as renewal, reinstatement, and spontaneous recovery, can be viewed as failures to retrieve an extinction memory. It follows that provision of a cue to aid retrieval of the extinction memory should attenuate response restoration or relapse after extinction. Six experiments studied the impact of an extinction retrieval cue (E-cue) on restoration of extinguished alcohol seeking in rats. Rats were trained to respond for alcoholic beer and this responding was then extinguished. Extinction training was accompanied by noncontingent presentations of a 60-s auditory stimulus that served as an E-cue. Presentations of the E-cue on test attenuated ABA renewal of alcohol seeking (Experiment 1) whereas an equally familiar cue from training had no effect (Experiment 2). Presentations of the E-cue had no effect on the reacquisition of alcohol seeking (Experiment 3). The same effects on ABA renewal (Experiments 4 and 6) and reacquisition (Experiment 5) were observed when the E-cue was trained in a response contingent manner during extinction. Taken together these findings show that presentations of an E-cue are able to attenuate the renewal but not reacquisition of alcohol seeking and are interpreted with reference to Bouton's model of extinction (Bouton, 1994a, 1994b, 2004).