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Hoffmann H. Situating Human Sexual Conditioning. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2017; 46:2213-2229. [PMID: 28698969 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-017-1030-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2016] [Revised: 04/09/2017] [Accepted: 06/28/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Conditioning is often thought of as a basic, automatic learning process that has limited applicability to higher-level human behavior. In addition, conditioning is seen as separable from, and even secondary to, "innate" processes. These ideas involve some misconceptions. The aim of this article is to provide a clearer, more refined sense of human sexual conditioning. After providing some background information and reviewing what is known from laboratory conditioning studies, human sexual conditioning is compared to sexual conditioning in nonhumans, to "innate" sexual responding, and to other types of human learning processes. Recommendations for moving forward in human sexual conditioning research are included.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather Hoffmann
- Department of Psychology, Knox College, Galesburg, IL, 61401, USA.
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2
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Sharpe MJ, Marchant NJ, Whitaker LR, Richie CT, Zhang YJ, Campbell EJ, Koivula PP, Necarsulmer JC, Mejias-Aponte C, Morales M, Pickel J, Smith JC, Niv Y, Shaham Y, Harvey BK, Schoenbaum G. Lateral Hypothalamic GABAergic Neurons Encode Reward Predictions that Are Relayed to the Ventral Tegmental Area to Regulate Learning. Curr Biol 2017; 27:2089-2100.e5. [PMID: 28690111 PMCID: PMC5564224 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2017] [Revised: 05/08/2017] [Accepted: 06/09/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Eating is a learned process. Our desires for specific foods arise through experience. Both electrical stimulation and optogenetic studies have shown that increased activity in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) promotes feeding. Current dogma is that these effects reflect a role for LH neurons in the control of the core motivation to feed, and their activity comes under control of forebrain regions to elicit learned food-motivated behaviors. However, these effects could also reflect the storage of associative information about the cues leading to food in LH itself. Here, we present data from several studies that are consistent with a role for LH in learning. In the first experiment, we use a novel GAD-Cre rat to show that optogenetic inhibition of LH γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons restricted to cue presentation disrupts the rats' ability to learn that a cue predicts food without affecting subsequent food consumption. In the second experiment, we show that this manipulation also disrupts the ability of a cue to promote food seeking after learning. Finally, we show that inhibition of the terminals of the LH GABA neurons in ventral-tegmental area (VTA) facilitates learning about reward-paired cues. These results suggest that the LH GABA neurons are critical for storing and later disseminating information about reward-predictive cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa J Sharpe
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
| | - Nathan J Marchant
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA; Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, 30 Royal Parade, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Leslie R Whitaker
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Christopher T Richie
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Yajun J Zhang
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, IRP, Executive Boulevard No. 402, Rockville, MD 20852, USA
| | - Erin J Campbell
- Neurobiology of Addiction Laboratory, School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle and the Hunter Medical Research Institute, University Drive, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
| | - Pyry P Koivula
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Julie C Necarsulmer
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Carlos Mejias-Aponte
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Marisela Morales
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - James Pickel
- National Institute of Mental Health, IRP, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Jeffrey C Smith
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, IRP, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Yael Niv
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Yavin Shaham
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
| | - Brandon K Harvey
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA.
| | - Geoffrey Schoenbaum
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, IRP, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA; Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, John Hopkins University, 401 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
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Blumberg MS. Development evolving: the origins and meanings of instinct. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2016; 8. [PMID: 27906515 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2015] [Revised: 09/07/2015] [Accepted: 09/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
How do migratory birds, herding dogs, and navigating sea turtles do the amazing things that they do? For hundreds of years, scientists and philosophers have struggled over possible explanations. In time, one word came to dominate the discussion: instinct. It became the catch-all explanation for those adaptive and complex abilities that do not obviously result from learning or experience. Today, various animals are said to possess a survival instinct, migratory instinct, herding instinct, maternal instinct, or language instinct. But a closer look reveals that these and other 'instincts' are not satisfactorily described as inborn, pre-programmed, hardwired, or genetically determined. Rather, research in this area teaches us that species-typical behaviors develop-and they do so in every individual under the guidance of species-typical experiences occurring within reliable ecological contexts. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1371. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1371 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark S Blumberg
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- The DeLTA Center, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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Mecawi AS, Macchione AF, Nuñez P, Perillan C, Reis LC, Vivas L, Arguelles J. Developmental programing of thirst and sodium appetite. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2015; 51:1-14. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2014] [Revised: 12/05/2014] [Accepted: 12/09/2014] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
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Hoffmann H, Safron A. Introductory editorial to 'the neuroscience and evolutionary origins of sexual learning'. SOCIOAFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE & PSYCHOLOGY 2012; 2:17415. [PMID: 24693351 PMCID: PMC3960067 DOI: 10.3402/snp.v2i0.17415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
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Woodson JC. I love you with all my brain: laying aside the intellectually dull sword of biological determinism. SOCIOAFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE & PSYCHOLOGY 2012; 2:17334. [PMID: 24693345 PMCID: PMC3960069 DOI: 10.3402/snp.v2i0.17334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Background By organizing and activating our passions with both hormones and experiences, the heart and mind of sexual behavior, sexual motivation, and sexual preference is the brain, the organ of learning. Despite decades of progress, this incontrovertible truth is somehow lost in the far-too-often biologically deterministic interpretation of genetic, hormonal, and anatomical scientific research into the biological origins of sexual motivation. Simplistic and polarized arguments are used in the media by both sides of the seemingly endless debate over sexual orientation, equality, and human rights with such catch phrases as ‘born gay’ contrasted against attempts of “reparative therapy” or “pray the gay away”. Though long abandoned in practically every other area of psychology, this remnant of the nature-nurture controversy remains despite its generally acknowledged insufficiency in explaining any adult aspect of the human condition within the scientific community. Methods This theoretical review article identifies three factors: 1) good intentions with regard to the argument from immutability; 2) false dichotomies limiting intellectual progress by oversimplification of theory and thus hypothesis, and most dangerously, interpretation and; 3) Tradition: a historical separation of the disciplines of biology and psychology, which, to this day, interferes with the effective translation of well-conducted science into good public understanding and policy. Results Studies clearly demonstrate that progress toward sexual-orientation equality is being made, if slowly, despite the apparent irrelevance of the “born gay” argument from immutability. Evidence is further provided supporting the inadequacy of polarized, dichotic theories of sexual development, particularly those pitting “blank slate learning” against a fated, deterministic biological perspective. Results of this review suggest that an emerging interactionist perspective will promote both better scientific progress and better public understanding, hopefully contributing to progress toward nondiscriminatory public policy. Conclusion Accepting that the brain is a highly plastic, modularly dimorphic, developmentally biased organ of learning, one which is organized and activated by both hormones and experiences across the lifespan, is essential for doing “good science” well. Interactionist theories of psychosexual development provide an empirically sound, strong, yet modifiable foundation for testable hypotheses exploring biologically biased sexual learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- James C Woodson
- Department of Psychology, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA
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Murray E, Wise S, Rhodes S. What Can Different Brains Do with Reward? NEUROBIOLOGY OF SENSATION AND REWARD 2011. [DOI: 10.1201/b10776-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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Campbell MA, Golub MS, Iyer P, Kaufman FL, Li LH, Moran Messen F, Morgan JE, Donald JM. Reduced water intake: Implications for rodent developmental and reproductive toxicity studies. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2009; 86:157-75. [DOI: 10.1002/bdrb.20196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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Harshaw C. Alimentary Epigenetics: A Developmental Psychobiological Systems View of the Perception of Hunger, Thirst and Satiety. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2008; 28:541-569. [PMID: 19956358 PMCID: PMC2654322 DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2008.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Hunger, thirst and satiety have an enormous influence on cognition, behavior and development, yet we often take for granted that they are simply inborn or innate. Converging data and theory from both comparative and human domains, however, supports the conclusion that the phenomena hunger, thirst and satiety are not innate but rather emerge probabilistically as a function of experience during individual development. The metatheoretical perspective provided by developmental psychobiological systems theory provides a useful framework for organizing and synthesizing findings related to the development of the perception of hunger, thirst and satiety, or alimentary interoception. It is argued that neither developmental psychology nor the psychology of eating and drinking have adequately dealt with the ontogeny of alimentary interoception and that a more serious consideration of the species-typical developmental system of food and fluid intake and the many modifications that have been made therein is likely necessary for a full understanding of both alimentary and emotional development.
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Middlemis-Brown JE, Johnson ED, Blumberg MS. Separable brainstem and forebrain contributions to ultrasonic vocalizations in infant rats. Behav Neurosci 2006; 119:1111-7. [PMID: 16187838 DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.119.4.1111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Competing views persist concerning the functional significance of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) emitted by infant rats. One perspective holds that USVs result from an emotional state of fear and anxiety, the adult expression of which depends in part on forebrain mechanisms. Here the authors examine whether pups lacking forebrain input are capable of emitting USVs. Aspirations of neocortex and hippocampus or precollicular decerebrations were performed on 8-day-old rats. After the rats recovered, USV responses were recorded for 10 min at room temperature (Phase 1) followed by enhanced cooling for 20 min (Phase 2). Experimental pups emitted significantly fewer USVs than shams during Phase 1 but vocalized at similar rates during Phase 2. Thus, in infants, brainstem neural circuitry is sufficient to support emission of USVs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica E Middlemis-Brown
- Program in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, US
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Myers KP, Ferris J, Sclafani A. Flavor preferences conditioned by postingestive effects of nutrients in preweanling rats. Physiol Behav 2005; 84:407-19. [PMID: 15763578 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2005.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2004] [Revised: 12/21/2004] [Accepted: 01/06/2005] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The purpose of these experiments was to determine if preweanling rats, like adults, are capable of learning to associate an arbitrary flavor with the postingestive effects of nutrients, and then demonstrate a preference for that flavor after weaning. In Experiment 1, preweanlings were trained daily from postnatal day (P) 16 through P19 with intraoral (IO) infusions of a grape or cherry flavor (CS+) mixed with 20% glucose (US), and the opposite flavor (CS-) mixed with 0.05% saccharin. After weaning, rats were given a 4-h two-bottle choice between the CS+ and CS- flavors both presented in 0.05% saccharin. Rats preferred the flavor previously paired with glucose. In Experiment 2 using similar methods, rats learned to prefer a flavor (CS+G) paired with a glucose US over a flavor (CS+S) paired with a sweeter but less nutritive sucrose US, indicating involvement of postingestive reinforcement. In Experiment 3 preweanling rats with IO and intragastric (IG) catheters were trained with a CS+ flavor paired with IG nutrient infusion, and a CS- flavor paired with no IG infusion. These rats showed no flavor preference 3 days after weaning, but did significantly prefer the CS+ flavor over the CS- flavor 10 days after weaning. Together these experiments demonstrate that neural mechanisms for flavor-nutrient associations are developed before weaning, allowing young rats to learn associations between arbitrary flavors and nutritive consequences. Thus nutrient conditioning may be one way that early experience (such as flavors from the maternal diet transmitted in milk) influences later dietary preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin P Myers
- Department of Psychology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837, United States.
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Baker TB, Piper ME, McCarthy DE, Majeskie MR, Fiore MC. Addiction motivation reformulated: an affective processing model of negative reinforcement. Psychol Rev 2004; 111:33-51. [PMID: 14756584 DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.111.1.33] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1364] [Impact Index Per Article: 68.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
This article offers a reformulation of the negative reinforcement model of drug addiction and proposes that the escape and avoidance of negative affect is the prepotent motive for addictive drug use. The authors posit that negative affect is the motivational core of the withdrawal syndrome and argue that, through repeated cycles of drug use and withdrawal, addicted organisms learn to detect interoceptive cues of negative affect preconsciously. Thus, the motivational basis of much drug use is opaque and tends not to reflect cognitive control. When either stressors or abstinence causes negative affect to grow and enter consciousness, increasing negative affect biases information processing in ways that promote renewed drug administration. After explicating their model, the authors address previous critiques of negative reinforcement models in light of their reformulation and review predictions generated by their model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy B Baker
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53711-2027, USA.
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Myers KP, Hall WG. Effects of prior experience with dehydration and water on the time course of dehydration-induced drinking in weanling rats. Dev Psychobiol 2001; 38:145-53. [PMID: 11279591 DOI: 10.1002/dev.1008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Although cellular dehydration increases oral responding and swallowing of orally infused water in rats as young as 2 days old, it is not until well after the time of weaning that dehydration stimulates immediate water-seeking and initiation of drinking in situations where the water source must be approached voluntarily. Recent work has shown that the goal-directed appetitive sequence for drinking-orienting, approaching, and initiating contact with water-matures much later than the more precocial oral licking and swallowing behaviors, and normally comes to be elicited by dehydration only after post-weaning experience with dry food. In the current experiments we evaluate some critical features of post-weaning experience with dehydration and drinking, and find that prior experience with initiating drinking while dehydrated, but not experience with dehydration nor water per se, alters the time course of water intake during a subsequent hydrational challenge. The effects of experience are manifested as an increased proportion of water consumed in the early portion of the test, rather than a general increase in total consumption. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that prior experience is necessary for the coordination of water-oriented appetitive behaviors that lead to the initiation and maintenance of drinking bouts, and provide further evidence for an associative learning account of the acquisition of dehydration-induced drinking.
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Affiliation(s)
- K P Myers
- Department of Psychology Experimental, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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