A translational analysis of ABA and ABC renewal of operant behavior

Parietal-Frontal Pathway Controls Relapse of Fear Memory in a Novel Context

Background

Fear responses significantly affect daily life and shape our approach to uncertainty. However, the potential resurgence of fear in unfamiliar situations poses a significant challenge to exposure-based therapies for maladaptive fear responses. Nonetheless, how novel contextual stimuli are associated with the relapse of extinguished fear remains unknown.

Methods

Using a context-dependent fear renewal model, the functional circuits and underlying mechanisms of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were investigated using optogenetic, histological, in vivo, and ex vivo electrophysiological and pharmacological techniques.

Results

We demonstrated that the PPC-to-ACC pathway governs fear relapse in a novel context. We observed enhanced populational calcium activity in the ACC neurons that received projections from the PPC and increased synaptic activity in the basolateral amygdala-projecting PPC-to-ACC neurons upon renewal in a novel context, where excitatory postsynaptic currents amplitudes increased but inhibitory postsynaptic current amplitudes decreased. In addition, we found that parvalbumin-expressing interneurons controlled novel context-dependent fear renewal, which was blocked by the chronic administration of fluoxetine.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the PPC-to-ACC pathway in mediating the relapse of extinguished fear in novel contexts, thereby contributing significant insights into the intricate neural mechanisms that govern fear renewal.

An individualized approach to teaching adults with autism to successfully navigate job interviews via remote instruction

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges securing employment, which may partially explain overall underemployment or unemployment in this population. One of the first steps to obtaining employment is participating in a job interview. However, social communication deficits may interfere with an individual with ASD's participation in a job interview. The current study evaluated the use of behavioral skills training delivered via remote instruction to teach interview skills to seven adults with ASD. Results showed overall improvement during interviews as well as posttraining tests with a career development expert. These data suggest that an individualized approach to teaching may be an effective strategy to help adults with ASD successfully navigate job interviews.

Prevalence of relapse of automatically maintained behavior resulting from context changes

Increases in behavior due to context changes are common and are known as instances of renewal. Clinically relevant examples from the literature highlighting renewal often include socially mediated problem behaviors. This report retrospectively analyzed data during context changes for individuals who engaged in problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, to evaluate the prevalence of relapse. Problem behavior reemerged during changes both in the person implementing treatment (e.g., introducing a caregiver; 36%) and in the setting (e.g., introducing treatment in the home; 26%). Most prevalence studies report greatest relapse immediately following context changes but the highest level of relapse was observed after 5 sessions following person changes and no systematic pattern with setting changes. These patterns of relapse likely reflect differences in the function of settings and people relative to automatically reinforced behavior in the present study. Implications of relapse for treatments of problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement are discussed.

Prevalence of renewal of problem behavior: Replication and extension to an inpatient setting

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who exhibit problem behavior often receive behavioral assessment and treatment in specialized inpatient and outpatient clinics. However, problem behavior sometimes reemerges as a function of changes in contexts and stimulus conditions, such as returning to the home environment. This reemergence is called renewal. Recently, Muething et al. (2020) found that renewal occurred in over half (67%) of cases from an outpatient clinic. Their sample was obtained exclusively from an outpatient setting and despite the applied relevance of renewal, its clinical prevalence in other populations is unknown. Accordingly, we replicated Muething et al.'s procedures and analyzed renewal in 37 inpatient treatment applications across 34 cases via consecutive-controlled case series. Renewal was present in 59% of cases; however, we found that renewal occurred in only 24% of context changes compared to 42% reported by Muething et al. Various factors related to the prevalence of renewal were evaluated.

Investigations of operant ABA renewal during differential reinforcement

Operant renewal is a form of relapse in which a previously extinguished response recurs due to a change in context. We designed two experiments to examine the impact of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior on ABA renewal in a translational model of relapse with 12 children. We compared levels of renewal in two 3-phase arrangements. In one arrangement, we reinforced target responding in Context A, extinguished responding in Context B, and returned to Context A while continuing to implement extinction. In a second arrangement, an alternative response produced reinforcement in Context B and during the return to Context A. Results across the 2 experiments indicated 3 general findings. First, extinction plus differential reinforcement disrupted target behavior more consistently in Context B relative to extinction alone. Second, renewal tended to be greater and more persistent during extinction alone relative to extinction plus differential reinforcement. Third, the renewal effect appeared to depend on whether the alternative response had a history of extinction in Context A. We discuss methodological implications for the treatment of severe destructive behavior.

Relapse of operant behavior after response elimination with an extinction or an omission contingency

The present study compared relapse after responding was eliminated by extinction or omission training in rats. In Experiment 1, lever pressing was reinforced with food pellets in Context A and then eliminated with either extinction or omission training in Context B. The response was then tested in Contexts A and B in either the presence or absence of free food pellets delivered on a random time schedule. All rats showed higher responding when tested in Context A than Context B, and there was little evidence that omission training attenuated this ABA renewal effect. Noncontingent pellets increased responding after extinction but not after omission. However, when responding on the last day of response elimination was compared to responding during the test in the response-elimination context, there was some evidence that omission-trained rats showed a small increase in responding even when tested with free pellets. Results of Experiment 2 suggest this increase was not due to differences in the temporal distribution of pellets during elimination and the test, and that the result might be due to mere removal of the omission contingency, but any such effect is small and difficult to detect statistically. The results provide new information about factors generating relapse after omission training.

A review of investigations of operant renewal with human participants: Implications for theory and practice

Operant renewal is the recurrence of a previously eliminated target behavior as a function of changing stimulus contexts. Renewal as a model of treatment relapse in humans suggests that a change in stimulus conditions or context is sufficient to produce relapse of a previously eliminated maladaptive behavior. The extent to which general findings from operant renewal studies involving nonhuman animal subjects are supported by relapse studies involving human participants is unknown. We conducted a systematic review of studies demonstrating or mitigating operant renewal in human participants in peer-reviewed studies found in PsycINFO, ERIC, PubMed, and Scopus between 1980 and 2019. We identified 12 studies involving 61 participants and 93 cases of operant renewal. We coded descriptive data on participant and study characteristics and calculated summary statistics. Results indicated that the renewal effect was a robust phenomenon, supported by demonstrations in both clinical and human-laboratory studies, and across a variety of variables and experimental preparations. However, there were relatively few studies involving human participants that attempted to reduce or eliminate renewal of clinically meaningful behavior. We discuss variables relevant for studying renewal in socially meaningful contexts, practical limitations of observing the renewal effect in real-world settings, implications for theoretical models of renewal, and identify barriers to methodology unique to human participants. We provide directions for future research related to implementing and translating nonhuman animal studies of renewal to applied settings.

Extinction of instrumental (operant) learning: interference, varieties of context, and mechanisms of contextual control

This article reviews recent research on the extinction of instrumental (or operant) conditioning from the perspective that it is an example of a general retroactive interference process. Previous discussions of interference have focused primarily on findings from Pavlovian conditioning. The present review shows that extinction in instrumental learning has much in common with other examples of retroactive interference in instrumental learning (e.g., omission learning, punishment, second-outcome learning, discrimination reversal learning, and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior). In each, the original learning can be largely retained after conflicting information is learned, and behavior is cued or controlled by the current context. The review also suggests that a variety of stimuli can play the role of context, including room and apparatus cues, temporal cues, drug state, deprivation state, stress state, and recent reinforcers, discrete cues, or behaviors. In instrumental learning situations, the context can control behavior through its direct association with the reinforcer or punisher, through its hierarchical relation with response-outcome associations, or its direct association (inhibitory or excitatory) with the response. In simple instrumental extinction and habit learning, the latter mechanism may play an especially important role.