| Summary: | This study investigated two hypotheses. First, that chronic cocaine treatment would mimic the changes in breathing that are associated with ventilatory acclimatisation to chronic hypoxia (VAH). Second, that pre-treatment with a hypoxic stressor would bring about cross-sensitisation to cocaine. To address the first hypothesis, rats were exposed to either chronically hypoxic or chronically normoxic conditions and treated with either cocaine or saline for a 14 day period. Following this period, acute breathing trials were performed to measure resting ventilation and ventilatory chemoreflexes. The results demonstrated that chronic cocaine treatment did not induce the changes in breathing associated with VAH. To address the second hypothesis rats were exposed to a hypoxic stressor for 10 days (either intermittent hypoxia or chronic hypoxia) after which cocaine sensitisation was measured via locomotor sensitisation trials. The results demonstrated that cross-sensitisation between a hypoxic stress and cocaine was observed for intermittent but not chronic hypoxia.
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