# Training in Translational Methods for Assessing Behavior Change and Relapse Mechanisms

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE · 2020 · $123,055

## Abstract

Project Summary
This revised K01 application is designed to obtain support and time for Dr. Eric Thrailkill (PI) to gain training in
translational substance abuse research and experience in conducting human behavioral pharmacology studies
with adult daily smokers. This will accomplish the career development goal of expanding the PI’s skills and
expertise to include laboratory research with human participants and with human behavioral pharmacology. In
this project, the PI will complete an intensive training program in human behavioral pharmacology, translational
science, and advanced statistical approaches to data analysis at the University of Vermont under the
mentorship of Dr. Stephen Higgins. Dr. Higgins is internationally recognized for his human behavioral
pharmacology work with smokers, clinical research on behavior change, and for his mentorship skills. The PI
will become skilled in the technical and practical approaches needed to conduct human drug self-
administration research with cigarette smokers. The training plan involves development of research and
analysis skills in human behavioral pharmacology that will uniquely complement the PI’s background in
preclinical research into the basic mechanisms of behavior change and relapse. The PI will maintain a focus on
basic learning processes by continuing a training relationship with Dr. Mark Bouton, who has pioneered the
study of fundamental behavior change mechanisms in preclinical models. The PI has a unique opportunity to
combine the strengths of each mentor into a series of focused studies with adult daily cigarette smokers that
will provide the basis for an R01 research project on behavior change mechanisms in smokers. He will apply
his newly-developed expertise in human behavioral pharmacology and his background in preclinical relapse
models to develop three laboratory models of behavior change and relapse processes at the human level.
Each study will use an established, well-validated preparation where individuals under brief smoking
abstinence come into a controlled laboratory setting to perform an operant task where they earn brief
opportunities to smoke. This method will be used to study underlying processes involved in the reduction and
relapse of smoking-reinforced behavior. Studies will examine (1) renewal of an extinguished cigarette-seeking
response when the extinction context is changed, (2) resurgence of an extinguished cigarette-seeking
response when extinction is introduced for a replacement behavior, and (3) relapse of a nonextinguished --
though suppressed-- cigarette-seeking operant response upon the removal of incentives for a replacement
behavior. In addition to providing initial demonstrations of these relapse phenomena with operant responding in
human smokers, each study will experimentally evaluate a learning-theory based approach to reducing relapse
by enhancing the similarity of the relapse test context and the treatment context. Completing the training and
resea...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9868292
- **Project number:** 5K01DA044456-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric Allen Thrailkill
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $123,055
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-03-15 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9868292

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9868292, Training in Translational Methods for Assessing Behavior Change and Relapse Mechanisms (5K01DA044456-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9868292. Licensed CC0.

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