Vassoler et al. (2012)

Vassoler et al. (2012) was a very interesting article that examined the effects of paternal cocaine self-administration on their offspring. I liked that they were examining specifically the effect of paternal cocaine self-administration, rather than including maternal cocaine use as well. This helps to rule out possible confounding variables, like in utero cocaine exposure, and changes in the mother’s behavior due to cocaine exposure. Furthermore, the article looked at differences in male and female offspring behavior and gene expression. I really appreciated that the article looked at sex differences. I also thought that the behavioral tests that they chose were very interesting. I loved that they tested self-administration of cocaine on both a fixed ratio and progressive ratio schedule. This really helps to break down and better understand the cocaine administration behavior. I also appreciated some of the control experiments that the study did, such as assuring that the cocaine sires had no influence on maternal behaior.

I thought it was very interesting that the study found that male cocaine spires administered less cocaine than control spires. This is the opposite of what I would expect—I thought that having a parent who used cocaine would make someone more likely to abuse cocaine. Additionally, these male offspring had a lower breaking point for cocaine self-administration on a progressive ratio schedule. I really liked that the paper looked at BDNF as a modulator of this effect. They found that pretreatment with ANA-12 reversed the delay in acquisition of cocaine self-administration in these male rats. This shows that BDNF expression in the mPFC may reduce the cocaine reinforcement in the male cocaine spires. It would be really interesting to further investigate why females do not experience these same effects. I think that this article is also important in suggesting that drug use in males who have a father who also abuses that drug, may perhaps be more due to environmental factors, rather than genetic (may be evidence for nurture over nature in this scenario). Understanding how parental substance use affects offspring could be very important in determining the best ways to prevent and treat substance abuse in people who have parents with histories of substance abuse.