Definition
Self-administration is a technique used in animal behavior, which relies on operant conditioning processes. Self-administration involves a process whereby an animal performs a particular behavior to receive a rewarding stimulus of some kind – generally a drug, food, or liquid such as water or alcohol but can also include stimulation of brain reward areas. The learning of this behavior is termed instrumental learning and is an operant conditioning process whereby an action becomes associated with an outcome (delivery of rewarding stimulus). Self-administration has many applications and is considered the gold standard test for assessing the potential abuse liability of new pharmaceutical compounds in a preclinical setting. The substance is considered to be of high abuse potential if the animal will self-administer it readily. Self-administration in a laboratory setting is typically performed by rats but can also be performed by any species capable of operant learning, e.g.,...
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Madsen, H.B., Brown, R.M. (2017). Self Administration. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1262-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1262-1
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