Tobacco smoking is the main cause of preventable disease in Western Europe and North America. Nicotine is the principal psychoactive agent in tobacco, underlying tobacco's addictive properties. Most preclinical studies on the effects of voluntary nicotine use have used self-administration procedures that provide continuous nicotine access during each self-administration session (Long-access or LgA). However, many smokers consume cigarettes intermittently, rather than continuously throughout each day. Here we gave female and male rats LgA (6 h/day) or intermittent access (IntA; 12 min ON, 60 min OFF, for 6 h/day) to intravenous nicotine (15 µg/kg/infusion), for 12 daily sessions. We then compared the groups on intake, responding for nicotine under a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement, as well as cue- and nicotine-induced reinstatement of nicotine-seeking behavior after abstinence (measures of relapse). Nicotine self-administration behavior was similar across the sexes and so they were pooled for analysis. LgA rats took more nicotine than IntA rats did. However, the two groups later showed similar responding for nicotine under progressive ratio, and similar cue- and nicotine-induced reinstatement. Thus, intermittent nicotine use is just as effective as continuous use in producing addiction-relevant behaviors, despite significantly less nicotine exposure. Our findings have implications for modeling in rats nicotine-induced changes in brain and behavior at different stages of the addiction process.

Nicotine self-administration behavior under continuous versus intermittent access conditions in male and female rats

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PS-3-F -  Cognition and Behavior

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Colleagues and Friends:

I am very happy to welcome you to the 14th annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, and to the first virtual edition of our meeting. I want to highlight the important work the CAN meeting chair, **Roger Thompson** and co-chair, **Alyson Fournier**, did to put together the great program we are offering this year. Moving to a virtual format required a complete re-design of the program, and both Roger and Alyson did a splendid job in providing us with an appealing and well adapted program for our first virtual event. I wish to thank them for this very important effort.

Highlights of this year’s scientific meeting include invited speakers **Michael Hausser, Franck Polleux, Gwyneth Card, Magdalena Götz**and Brain Prize winner **Huda Zoghbi**. Plenary and parallel symposia, proposed by our members complete our diverse [scientific program.](https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/program-2021/)

The 2021 Advocacy session, chaired and organized by CAN advocacy committee chair **Karun Singh**, will feature a special lecture and question period with Member of Parliament and past Science Minister **Kirsty Duncan**. This will be followed by a short overview of CAN’s advocacy activities over the last year. We invite you to participate in this session for insight from Dr. Duncan on the workings of Parliament Hill, and to learn more about what CAN has been doing to promote neuroscience research in Canada.

We are also excited to host **Lisa Willis** in the Equity Diversity and Inclusion session, organized by EDI committee chair **Jibran Khokhar**.

A special highlight of our meeting will be the lectures by award-winning young neuroscientists. We are please to host the CAN 2020 Young Investigator Award winner **Mihaela Iordanova**, and CAN 2021 Young Investigator Award winners **Aaron Phillips** and **Tabrez Siddiqui**. Highlights will also include presentation by the top three winners of the CAN-CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Award winners, **Claire Gizowski, Nuria Daviu Abant** and **Lukas Tamayo-Orrego**.

Independently organized satellite symposia complement and complete this exciting program, check them out here: https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/2021-satellite-symposia/

Some of the most engaging sessions are always the poster sessions featuring the work of our trainees, so make sure to log in to Gather Town during the poster sessions to chat with the presenters.
We hope you enjoy this program, and look forward to welcoming you, virtually.

Shernaz Bamji

President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

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Hajer Algallal

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Nicotine self-administration behavior under continuous versus intermittent access conditions in male and female rats

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