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Fernández RC, Puddington MM, Kliger R, Core JD, Jure I, Labombarda F, Papini MR, Muzio RN. Instrumental successive negative contrast in rats: Trial distribution, reward magnitude, and prefrontal cortex activation. Physiol Behav 2024; 278:114511. [PMID: 38479582 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2023] [Revised: 02/16/2024] [Accepted: 03/10/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Successive negative contrast (SNC) has been used to study reward relativity, reward loss, and frustration for decades. In instrumental SNC (iSNC), the anticipatory performance of animals downshifted from a large reward to a small reward is compared to that of animals always reinforced with the small reward. iSNC involves a transient deterioration of anticipatory behavior in downshifted animals compared to unshifted controls. There is scattered information on the optimal parameters to produce this effect and even less information about its neural basis. Five experiments with rats trained in a runway to collect food pellets explored the effects of trial distribution (massed or spaced), amount of preshift training, reward disparity, and reward magnitude on the development of an iSNC effect. Start, run, and goal latencies were measured. Using spaced trials (one trial per day), evidence of the iSNC effect was observed with 24 preshift trials and a 32-to-4 pellet disparity. With massed trials (4 trials per session separated by 30-s intertrial intervals), evidence of iSNC was found with 12 preshift sessions (a total of 48 trials) and a 16-to-2 pellet disparity. The massed-training procedure was then used to assess neural activity in three prefrontal cortex areas using c-Fos expression in animals perfused after the first downshift session. There was evidence of increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and a trend toward increased activation in the infralimbic and prelimbic cortices. These procedures open a venue for studying the neural basis of the instrumental behavior of animals that experience reward loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rocío C Fernández
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Psicología, Instituto de Investigaciones, Lavalle 2353, 1052-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Martín M Puddington
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Psicología, Instituto de Investigaciones, Lavalle 2353, 1052-Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Salud y Seguridad Social, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Juncal 1319, 1062-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Rafi Kliger
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Julián Del Core
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Ignacio Jure
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Florencia Labombarda
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Mauricio R Papini
- Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA.
| | - Rubén N Muzio
- Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBYME-CONICET), Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428-Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Psicología, Instituto de Investigaciones, Lavalle 2353, 1052-Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Pallanti S, Zohar J, Kasper S, Möller HJ, Hollander E. Revisiting benzodiazepines (GABA Enhancers):A transdiagnostic and precision medicine approach. J Psychiatr Res 2024; 170:65-72. [PMID: 38103451 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.11.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2023] [Revised: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Since the mid 1980's, there has been an increased focus on the side effects of benzodiazepines (GABA enhancers), and as a result there has been a decrease in their use. We have systematically reviewed recent studies of GABA enhancers in psychiatry, and highlight evidence of their utility which may impact their negative conceptualization in clinical practice. We propose a new perspective on the appropriate use of these medications and describeclinical reasoning underpinning the use of benzodiazepine (GABA enhancers) based on their effect on specific receptors. A translational approach, involving a more comprehensive characterization of GABA receptors and their neuroscience-based mechanisms allows for a more precise use of this medication class. By adopting a precision person-centered approach, instead of a categorical approach, supports the prescribing of GABA enhancers when a cross-cutting transdiagnostic assessment shows anxiety symptoms associated with clinical impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Pallanti
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, USA; Institute of Neuroscience, Florence, Italy.
| | | | - Siegfried Kasper
- Center for Brain Research, Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Hans-Jürgen Möller
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of München, Munich, Germany
| | - Eric Hollander
- Autism and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Program, Psychiatric Research Institute at Montefiore-Einstein, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA
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Bonauto SM, Greuel OM, Honeycutt JA. Playback of rat 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations as a translational assay of negative affective states: An analysis of evoked behavior and brain activity. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 153:105396. [PMID: 37739328 PMCID: PMC10591797 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Revised: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023]
Abstract
The subjective nature of human emotions makes them uniquely challenging to investigate in preclinical models. While behavioral assays in rodents aim to evaluate affect (i.e., anxiety, hypervigilance), they often lack ethological validity. Playback of negatively valenced 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rats shows promise as a translational tool to investigate affective processing. Much like how human facial expressions can communicate internal states, rats emit 22-kHz USVs that similarly convey negative affective states to conspecifics indicating possible threat. 22-kHz USV playback elicits avoidance and hypervigilant behaviors, and recruit brain regions comparable to those seen in human brains evoked by viewing fearful faces. Indeed, 22-kHz playback alters neural activity in brain regions associated with negative valence systems (i.e., amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, periaqueductal gray) alongside increases in behaviors typically associated with anxiety. Here, we present evidence from the literature that supports leveraging 22-kHz USV playback in rat preclinical models to obtain clinically relevant and translational findings to identify the neural underpinnings of affective processing and neuropathological dysfunction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sydney M Bonauto
- Program in Neuroscience, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States
| | - Olivia M Greuel
- Program in Neuroscience, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States
| | - Jennifer A Honeycutt
- Program in Neuroscience, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States; Department of Psychology, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States.
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Farahbakhsh ZZ, Song K, Branthwaite HE, Erickson KR, Mukerjee S, Nolan SO, Siciliano CA. Systemic kappa opioid receptor antagonism accelerates reinforcement learning via augmentation of novelty processing in male mice. Neuropsychopharmacology 2023; 48:857-868. [PMID: 36804487 PMCID: PMC10156709 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-023-01547-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
Abstract
Selective inhibition of kappa opioid receptors (KORs) is highly anticipated as a pharmacotherapeutic intervention for substance use disorders and depression. The accepted explanation for KOR antagonist-induced amelioration of aberrant behaviors posits that KORs globally function as a negative valence system; antagonism thereby blunts the behavioral influence of negative internal states such as anhedonia and negative affect. While effects of systemic KOR manipulations have been widely reproduced, explicit evaluation of negative valence as an explanatory construct is lacking. Here, we tested a series of falsifiable hypotheses generated a priori based on the negative valence model by pairing reinforcement learning tasks with systemic pharmacological KOR blockade in male C57BL/6J mice. The negative valence model failed to predict multiple experimental outcomes: KOR blockade accelerated contingency learning during both positive and negative reinforcement without altering innate responses to appetitive or aversive stimuli. We next proposed novelty processing, which influences learning independent of valence, as an alternative explanatory construct. Hypotheses based on novelty processing predicted subsequent observations: KOR blockade increased exploration of a novel, but not habituated, environment and augmented the reinforcing efficacy of novel visual stimuli in a sensory reinforcement task. Together, these results revise and extend long-standing theories of KOR system function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zahra Z Farahbakhsh
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Keaton Song
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Hannah E Branthwaite
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Kirsty R Erickson
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Snigdha Mukerjee
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Suzanne O Nolan
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA
| | - Cody A Siciliano
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA.
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