Place conditioning in humans: opportunities for translational research

RationaleTranslational research, especially research that bridges studies with humans and nonhuman species, is critical to advancing our understanding of human disorders such as addiction. This advancement requires reliable and rigorous models to study the underlying constructs contributing to the maladaptive behavior.ObjectiveIn this commentary, we address some of the challenges of conducting translational research by examining a single procedure, place conditioning. Place conditioning is commonly used with laboratory animals to study the conditioned rewarding effects of drugs, and recent studies indicate that a similar procedure can be used in humans.ResultsWe discuss the opportunities and challenges of making the procedure comparable across species, as well as discuss the benefits of more systematically applying the procedure to humans.ConclusionWe argue that the capacity of humans to report verbally on their internal experiences (perceptions, affective states, likes and dislikes) add an important dimension to the understanding of the procedures used in laboratory animals.