scholarly journals A novel multidimensional reinforcement task in mice elucidates sex-specific behavioral strategies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir Gunes Kutlu ◽  
Jennifer E Zachry ◽  
Lillian J Brady ◽  
Patrick R Melugin ◽  
Christina Sanders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Negative Reinforcement ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Shock Avoidance ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Discriminative Stimuli ◽  
Reward Seeking

AbstractBackgroundSex is a critical biological variable in the neuropathology of psychiatric disease, and in many cases, women represent a vulnerable population. It has been hypothesized that sex differences in neuropsychiatric disorders are manifestations of differences in basic reward processing. However, preclinical models often present rewards in isolation, ignoring that ethologically, reward seeking requires the consideration of potential aversive outcomes.MethodsWe developed a Multidimensional Cue Outcome Action Task (MCOAT) to dissociate motivated action from cue learning and valence. Mice are trained in a series of operant tasks. In phase 1, mice acquire positive and negative reinforcement in the presence of discrete discriminative stimuli. In phase 2, both discriminative stimuli are presented concurrently allowing us to parse innate behavioral strategies based on reward seeking and shock avoidance. Phase 3 is punished responding where a discriminative stimulus predicts that nose-poking for sucrose occurs concurrently with footshock, allowing for the assessment of how positive and negative outcomes are relatively valued.ResultsFemales prioritize avoidance of negative outcomes over seeking positive, while males have the opposite strategy. In cases where rules are uncertain, males and females employ different strategies, with females demonstrating bias for shock avoidance.ConclusionsThe MCOAT has broad utility for neuroscience research where pairing this task with recording and manipulation techniques will allow for the definition of the discrete information encoded within cellular populations. Ultimately, we show that making conclusions from unidimensional data leads to inaccurate generalizations about sex-specific behaviors that do not accurately represent ground truth.

scholarly journals Socio-Ecological Natural Experiment with Randomized Controlled Trial to Promote Active Commuting to Work: Process Evaluation, Behavioral Impacts, and Changes in the Use and Quality of Walking and Cycling Paths

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Aittasalo ◽  
Johanna Tiilikainen ◽  
Kari Tokola ◽  
Jaana Suni ◽  
Harri Sievänen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Active Commuting ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Journey To Work

Active commuting to work (ACW) has beneficial effects on health, traffic, and climate. However, more robust evidence is needed on how to promote ACW. This paper reports the findings of a multilevel natural experiment with a randomized controlled trial in 16 Finnish workplaces. In Phase 1, 11 workplaces (1823 employees) from Area 1 were exposed to environmental improvements in walking and cycling paths. In Phase 2, five more workplaces (826 employees) were recruited from Area 2 and all workplaces were randomized into experimental group (EXP) promoting ACW with social and behavioral strategies and comparison group (COM) participating only in data collection. Process and impact evaluation with questionnaires, travel diaries, accelerometers, traffic calculations, and auditing were conducted. Statistics included Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and after-before differences with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). After Phase 1, positive change was seen in the self-reported number of days, which the employees intended to cycle part of their journey to work in the following week (p = 0.001). After Phase 2, intervention effect was observed in the proportion of employees, who reported willingness to increase walking (8.7%; 95% CI 1.8 to 15.6) and cycling (5.5%; 2.2 to 8.8) and opportunity to cycle part of their journey to work (5.9%; 2.1 to 9.7). To conclude, the intervention facilitated employees’ motivation for ACW, which is the first step towards behavior change.

scholarly journals The Role of Coping Strategies in Maintaining Well-Being During the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062199059
Author(s):  
Joo Hyun Kim ◽  
Yerin Shim ◽  
Incheol Choi ◽  
Eunsoo Choi
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
The Individual

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose an unprecedented challenge for the world as people strive to cope with this significant threat to their well-being. This intensive longitudinal study of the first 94 days of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea (Phase 1: initial outbreak, Phase 2: intense social distancing) examined individuals’ changes in well-being, in relation to their use of coping strategies and fear of infection. A sample of 10,464 South Koreans participated in surveys during Phase 1 and Phase 2, resulting in 35,846 observations. Multilevel growth models revealed a decrease in well-being while different coping strategies moderated the individual rate of change in well-being. Although preventive measures were associated with a greater decrease in well-being, cognitive appraisal and behavioral strategies predicted stable well-being during the pandemic. Coping strategies further mediated the association between fear of infection and deterioration of well-being.

scholarly journals Neuroclinical Framework for the Role of Stress in Addiction

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 247054701769814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Kwako ◽  
George F. Koob
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Negative Reinforcement ◽  
Stress Component ◽  
Negative Emotionality ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Research Domain

Addiction has been conceptualized as a three-stage cycle— binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect, and preoccupation/anticipation—that worsens over time and involves allostatic changes in hedonic function via changes in the brain reward and stress systems. Using the withdrawal/negative affect stage and negative reinforcement as an important source of motivation for compulsive drug seeking, we outline the neurobiology of the stress component of the withdrawal/negative affect stage and relate it to a derivative of the Research Domain Criteria research construct for the study of psychiatric disease, known as the Addictions Neuroclinical Assessment. Using the Addictions Neuroclinical Assessment, we outline five subdomains of negative emotional states that can be operationally measured in human laboratory settings and paralleled by animal models. We hypothesize that a focus on negative emotionality and stress is closely related to the acute neurobiological alterations that are experienced in addiction and may serve as a bridge to a reformulation of the addiction nosology to better capture individual differences in patients for whom the withdrawal/negative affect stage drives compulsive drug taking.

scholarly journals The longitudinal stability of fMRI activation during reward processing in adolescents and young adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David AA Baranger ◽  
Morgan Lindenmuth ◽  
Melissa Nance ◽  
Amanda E. Guyer ◽  
Kate Keenan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Adolescents And Young Adults ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Reward Function

AbstractBackgroundThe use of functional neuroimaging has been an extremely fruitful avenue for investigating the neural basis of human reward function. This approach has included identification of potential neurobiological mechanisms of psychiatric disease and examination of environmental, experiential, and biological factors that may contribute to disease risk via effects on the reward system. However, a central and largely unexamined assumption of much of this research is that neural reward function is an individual difference characteristic that is relatively stable over time.MethodsIn two independent samples of adolescents and young adults studied longitudinally (Ns = 145 & 153, 100% female & 100% male, ages 15-21 & 20-22, 2-4 scans & 2 scans respectively), we tested within-person stability of reward-task BOLD activation, with a median of 1 and 2 years between scans. We examined multiple commonly used contrasts of active states and baseline in both the anticipation and feedback phases of a card-guessing reward task. We examined the effects of cortical parcellation resolution, contrast, network (reward regions and resting-state networks), region-size, and activation strength and variability on the stability of reward-related activation.ResultsOverall, stability (ICC; intra-class correlation) across 1-2 years was modest. In both samples, contrasts of an active state relative to a baseline were more stable (e.g., Win>Baseline; mean ICC = 0.13 – 0.33) than contrasts of two active states (e.g., Win>Loss; mean ICC = 0.048 – 0.05). Additionally, activation in reward regions was less stable than in many non-task networks (e.g., dorsal attention), and activation in regions with greater between-subject variability showed higher stability in both samples.ConclusionsThese results show that functional neuroimaging activation to reward has modest stability over 1-2 years. Notably, results suggest that contrasts intended to map cognitive function and show robust group-level effects (i.e. Win > Loss) may be less effective in studies of individual differences and disease risk. The robustness of group-level activation should be weighed against other factors when selecting regions of interest in individual difference fMRI studies.

scholarly journals Oxytocin Attenuates Expression, but Not Acquisition, of Sucrose Conditioned Place Preference in Rats

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon Patel ◽  
Megana Sundar ◽  
Eva Lorenz ◽  
Kah-Chung Leong
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Place Preference ◽  
Clinical Significance ◽  
Place Preference ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Obesity And Diabetes ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Natural Rewards ◽  
Insight Into

Maladaptation of reward processing for natural rewards, such as sucrose or sugar, may play a role in the development of diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Furthermore, uncovering mechanisms to disrupt or reverse maladaptation of reward-seeking behaviors for natural reinforcers can provide insight into treatment of such diseases, as well as disorders such as addiction. As such, studying the effects of potential pharmacotherapeutics on maladaptive sugar-seeking behavior offers valuable clinical significance. Sucrose conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigms can offer insight into aspects of reward processes as it provides a way to assess acquisition and expression of context-reward associations. The present study examined the effect of peripheral oxytocin injections on sucrose CPP in rats. Oxytocin, when administered prior to CPP test, attenuated expression of sucrose CPP. However, oxytocin, when administered during sucrose conditioning, did not affect subsequent place preference. These findings suggest oxytocin sufficiently attenuates expression of sucrose-associated place preference.

Altered reward processing in the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus in healthy first-degree relatives of patients with depression

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1183-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Macoveanu ◽  
U. Knorr ◽  
A. Skimminge ◽  
M. G. Søndergaard ◽  
A. Jørgensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
First Degree Relatives ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Left Hippocampus ◽  
Risk Choice ◽  
Double Blinded ◽  
Depressive Patients

BackgroundHealthy first-degree relatives of patients with major depression (rMD+) show brain structure and functional response anomalies and have elevated risk for developing depression, a disorder linked to abnormal serotonergic neurotransmission and reward processing.MethodIn a two-step functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation, we first evaluated whether positive and negative monetary outcomes were differentially processed by rMD+ individuals compared to healthy first-degree relatives of control probands (rMD−). Second, in a double-blinded placebo-controlled randomized trial we investigated whether a 4-week intervention with the selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram had a normalizing effect on behavior and brain responses of the rMD+ individuals.ResultsNegative outcomes increased the probability of risk-averse choices in the subsequent trial in rMD+ but not in rMD− individuals. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) displayed a stronger neural response when subjects missed a large reward after a low-risk choice in the rMD+ group compared to the rMD− group. The enhanced orbitofrontal response to negative outcomes was reversed following escitalopram intervention compared to placebo. Conversely, for positive outcomes, the left hippocampus showed attenuated response to high wins in the rMD+ compared to the rMD− group. The SSRI intervention reinforced the hippocampal response to large wins. A subsequent structural analysis revealed that the abnormal neural responses were not accounted for by changes in gray matter density in rMD+ individuals.ConclusionsOur study in first-degree relatives of depressive patients showed abnormal brain responses to aversive and rewarding outcomes in regions known to be dysfunctional in depression. We further confirmed the reversal of these aberrant activations with SSRI intervention.

scholarly journals Neuronal mechanisms of novelty seeking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takaya Ogasawara ◽  
Fatih Sogukpinar ◽  
Kaining Zhang ◽  
Yang-Yang Feng ◽  
Julia Pai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Novelty Seeking ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Visual Objects ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Primate Brain ◽  
Reward Value ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Novel Objects

Humans and other primates interact with the world by observing and exploring visual objects. In particular, they often seek out the opportunities to view novel objects that they have never seen before, even when they have no extrinsic primary reward value. However, despite the importance of novel visual objects in our daily life, we currently lack an understanding of how primate brain circuits control the motivation to seek out novelty. We found that novelty-seeking is regulated by a small understudied subcortical region, the zona incerta (ZI). In a task in which monkeys made eye movements to familiar objects to obtain the opportunity to view novel objects, many ZI neurons were preferentially activated by predictions of future novel objects and displayed burst excitations before gaze shifts to gain access to novel objects. Low intensity electrical stimulation of ZI facilitated gaze shifts, while inactivations of ZI reduced novelty-seeking. Surprisingly, additional experiments showed that this ZI-dependent novelty seeking behavior is not regulated by canonical neural circuitry for reward seeking. The habenula-dopamine pathway, known to reflect reward predictions that control reward seeking, was relatively inactive during novelty-seeking behavior in which novelty had no extrinsic reward value. Instead, high channel-count electrophysiological experiments and anatomical tracing identified a prominent source of control signals for novelty seeking in the anterior ventral medial temporal cortex (AVMTC), a brain region known to be crucially involved in visual processing and object memory. In addition to their well-known function in signaling the novelty or familiarity of objects in the current environment, AVMTC neurons reflected the predictions of future novel objects, akin to the way neurons in reward-circuitry predict future rewards in order to control reward-seeking. Our data uncover a network of primate brain areas that regulate novelty-seeking. The behavioral and neural distinctions between novelty-seeking and reward-processing highlight how the brain can accomplish behavioral flexibility, providing a mechanism to explore novel objects.

scholarly journals Mice learn multi-step routes by memorizing subgoal locations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Shamash ◽  
Sarah F. Olesen ◽  
Panagiota Iordanidou ◽  
Dario Campagner ◽  
Banerjee Nabhojit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Behavioral Strategy ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Direct Path ◽  
Hybrid Strategy ◽  
Memory Strategy ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Novel Environments

Animals must rapidly gather spatial information about new environments so that they can quickly reach food or safety even when direct paths are unavailable. The behavioral strategies used to implement multi-step routes to goals in naturalistic settings are unknown. Here we show that mice spontaneously learn a subgoal memory strategy while escaping to shelter or seeking food in an obstructed environment. We first investigated how mice navigate to shelter in response to threats when the direct path is blocked by a wall. Initially, mice ran straight toward the shelter and circumvented the obstacle using sensory cues. Over the course of 20 minutes, however, they switched to a spatial memory strategy to execute spatially efficient paths. Efficient escape routes were not learned by reinforcing egocentric actions or by constructing an unbiased internal map during exploration. Instead, mice used a hybrid strategy: they memorized specific subgoal locations encountered during previous running movements toward the obstacle. We then found that the same behavioral strategy is also used in a reward-seeking task. These results show that spontaneous memorization of local subgoals is a fundamental strategy by which rodents execute efficient multi-step routes to goals in novel environments.

Brain activity and infant attachment history in young men during loss and reward processing

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 465-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Quevedo ◽  
Theodore E. A. Waters ◽  
Hannah Scott ◽  
Glenn I. Roisman ◽  
Daniel S. Shaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
History Of

AbstractThere is now ample evidence that the quality of early attachment experiences shapes expectations for supportive and responsive care and ultimately serves to scaffold adaptation to the salient tasks of development. Nonetheless, few studies have identified neural mechanisms that might give rise to these associations. Using a moderately large sample of low-income male participants recruited during infancy (N= 171), we studied the predictive significance of attachment insecurity and disorganization at age 18 months (as measured in the Strange Situation Procedure) for patterns of neural activation to reward and loss at age 20 years (assessed during a reward-based task as part of a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan). Results indicated that individuals with a history of insecure attachment showed hyperactivity in (a) reward- and emotion-related (e.g., basal ganglia and amygdala) structures and (b) emotion regulation and self-referential processing (cortical midline structures) in response to positive and negative outcomes (and anticipation of those outcomes). Further, the neural activation of individuals with a history of disorganized attachment suggested that they had greater emotional reactivity in anticipation of reward and employed greater cognitive control when negative outcomes were encountered. Overall, results suggest that the quality of early attachments has lasting impacts on brain function and reward processing.

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