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Nicotine has been reported to produce both anxiolytic and/or anxiogenic effects in humans and animals.

This study examined whether pretreatment with nicotine would alter anxiety in a unique runway model of approach–avoidance conflict.

Food-restricted rats were trained to run a straight alley once a day to obtain food upon goal-box entry. Beginning on trial 11, food reward was followed by a series of five foot shocks (0.3–0.4 mA, 0.5 s) in the goal box. Non-shocked control rats continued to run for food only. The resulting association of the goal box with both a positive (food) and negative (foot shock) stimulus produced an approach–avoidance conflict (subjects exhibited “retreat behaviors” in which they would approach the goal box, stop, and then retreat back towards the …