Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry Chair, Department of Psychology University of Pittsburgh Email: tonypsy@pitt.edu Phone: 412-624-4501 Fax: 412-624-4428 Assistant: Debbie Connell, 412-624-4501 Research Program The focus of Dr. Caggiula’s core research program, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is on the neuropsychopharmacology of addictive drugs, particularly nicotine, although the work has recently been expanded to include cocaine. He is using a self-administration model in which laboratory rats learn to press a lever to receive intravenous infusions of nicotine or cocaine through an indwelling jugular catheter. The research models the role of nicotine and non-nicotine factors, such as environmental cues, in the control of smoking and the mechanisms through which drug and non-drug cues interact to produce this behavior. Dr. Caggiula and his colleagues have recently proposed a dual reinforcement model in which response-dependent nicotine functions as a relatively weak, primary reinforcer, but can

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also act to powerfully enhance the reinforcing properties of other stimuli, an action that does not require contingent relationship between drug administration and reinforced operant responding. The model predicts that smoking is controlled, to a significant degree, by non-nicotine factors, such as stimuli that are normally associated with the act of smoking, that have been enhanced by the actions of nicotine in the brain. Dr. Caggiula is also interested in differences between males and females in the relative importance of nicotine and non-nicotine stimuli in the control of smoking. Representative Publications  Caggiula,AR, Donny EC, White AR, Chaudhri N, Booth S, Gharib MA, Hoffman A, Perkins KA, Sved AF: Cue-dependency of nicotine self-administration and smoking. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 70:515-530, 2001. Chaudhri N, Caggiula AR, Donny EC, Booth S, Gharib MA, Craven LA, Allen SS, Sved AF, Perkins KA:  Sex differences in the contribution of nicotine and nonpharmacological stimuli to nicotine self-administration in rats. Psychopharmacology 180:258-266, 2005. Chaudhri N, Caggiula AR, Donny EC, Palmatier MI, Liu X, Sved AF: Complex interactions between nicotine and nonpharmacological stimuli reveal multiple roles for nicotine in reinforcement. Psychopharmacology 184:353-366, 2006. Palmatier M, Evans-Martin FF,  Hoffman A, Caggiula AR, Chaudhri N, Donny EC, Liu X, Booth S, Gharib M, Craven L, Sved A: Dissociating the primary reinforcing and reinforcement enhancing effects of nicotine using a rat self-administration paradigm with concurrently available drug and environmental reinforcers. Psychopharmacology 184: 391-400, 2006.

Revised 7/24/2006  la/tc