Date of Completion
Winter 12-15-2023
Thesis Advisor(s)
Dr. Robert Astur; Dr. Jianzhong Yu
Honors Major
Physiology and Neurobiology
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine if a Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) could be established for a Virtual Reality (VR) environment that was previously paired with virtual nicotine stimuli. 254 undergraduate students with varying levels of nicotine use from the University of Connecticut were recruited to participate in the study. Participants completed six, three-minute conditioning sessions where they were confined to one of two VR rooms with one room containing virtual nicotine stimuli while the other was neutral. Participants then completed a three-minute test session, in which they were allowed access to both rooms and there were no virtual nicotine stimuli present. While unable to produce a CPP amongst all nicotine users (n = 79), participants with both past month nicotine use and high nicotine dependence (n =75) explicitly preferred and established a CPP for the nicotine cue-paired room. Our findings suggest that there is a relationship between nicotine dependence and implicit and explicit preferences for a room previously paired with virtual nicotine stimuli.
Recommended Citation
Klin, Lukas, "A Virtual Reality Conditioned Place Preference in Undergraduates with Nicotine Use" (2023). Honors Scholar Theses. 1033.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/1033