1
|
Schoenberg HL, Bremer GP, Carasi-Schwartz F, VonDoepp S, Arntsen C, Anacker AMJ, Toufexis DJ. Cyclic estrogen and progesterone during instrumental acquisition contributes to habit formation in female rats. Horm Behav 2022; 142:105172. [PMID: 35405411 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 04/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Habit formation is thought to involve two parallel processes that are mediated by distinct neural substates: one that suppresses goal-directed behavior, and one that facilitates stimulus-response (S-R) learning, which underscores habitual behavior. In previous studies we showed that habitual responding emerges early during instrumental training in gonadally-intact female, compared to male, rats. The present study aimed to determine the role of ovarian hormones during instrumental acquisition in the transition from goal-directed to habitual behavior in female rats. Ovariectomized (OVX) female rats were given subcutaneous silastic capsules that released low levels of 17-β estradiol (E2) to maintain estrogen receptor availability. Rats were assigned to one of three hormone treatment conditions: no additional hormone replacement (Control group), replacement with high E2 (High E2 group), or replacement with high E2 followed by progesterone (High E2 + P4 group). Hormone replacement occurred twice during acquisition to mimic natural hormone fluctuations. At test, the Control and High E2 groups demonstrated responding that was sensitive to devaluation by lithium chloride-induced illness, indicating goal-directed behavior. In contrast, the High E2 + P4 group exhibited a pattern of devaluation-insensitive, habitual responding, that suggested the suppression of goal-directed processes. In a follow-up experiment, similar procedures were conducted, however during acquisition, OVX rats were given cyclic high E2 plus medroxy-progesterone (MPA), a form of progesterone that does not metabolize to neuroactive metabolites. In this group, goal-directed behavior was observed. These data indicate that habit formation is not facilitated in low estrogen states, nor in the presence of cyclic high E2. However, cyclic high E2, together with progesterone during acquisition, appears to facilitate the early emergence of habitual responding. Furthermore, these data suggest that a neuroactive progesterone metabolite, like allopregnanolone, in combination with high cyclic E2, supports this phenomenon.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hannah L Schoenberg
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America.
| | - Gillian P Bremer
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America
| | - Francesca Carasi-Schwartz
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America
| | - Sarah VonDoepp
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America
| | - Christian Arntsen
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America
| | - Allison M J Anacker
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America
| | - Donna J Toufexis
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, United States of America.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Frank-Podlech S, Watson P, Verhoeven AAC, Stegmaier S, Preissl H, de Wit S. Competing influences on healthy food choices: Mindsetting versus contextual food cues. Appetite 2021; 166:105476. [PMID: 34174362 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Food choices are influenced by one's current mindset, suggesting that supporting health (vs. a palatability) mindsets could improve daily food choices. The question rises, however, to what extent internal mindsets still guide choices when people are exposed to external food-context stimuli in an obesogenic environment. To examine these two competing effects we induced health vs. palatability mindsets, and investigated the robustness of the mindset effect by presenting food-context stimuli during a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental-Transfer (PIT) task in two separate cohorts of 102 (76 females) Dutch and 120 (60 females) German participants. For the mindset induction, participants rated food items on visual analogue scales (VAS), based on healthiness and palatability, respectively. In each cohort, half of the participants received a health, the other half a palatability mindset induction. Additionally, we explored whether 'mindset triggers' could be used to further shape behavior. Triggers were established by placing unfamiliar logos at the extreme ends of the VASs used for the mindset inductions. Independent of the mindset, food-associated stimuli influenced food choices in accordance with the previously learned association in each test phase. Health mindset induction biased food choices towards healthier, palatability mindset towards unhealthier choices in the first cohort, but not in the second. The mindset triggers had a more robust effect. These induced healthier (triggers for healthy and not-palatable) and unhealthier (triggers for unhealthy and palatable) food choices in both cohorts alike. Interestingly, these effects did not tamper with the overall effect of Pavlovian cues and were thus true in the presence and absence of food-context stimuli. Therefore, we show that, in our experimental setting, food-associated mindset triggers can be used to bias food choices towards a healthy snack even in an obesogenic environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Frank-Podlech
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Tübingen, Germany; Department of Internal Medicine IV, University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Poppy Watson
- Habit Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Aukje A C Verhoeven
- Habit Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sophia Stegmaier
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hubert Preissl
- Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Tübingen, Germany; Department of Internal Medicine IV, University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany; Institute for Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Diabetes Center, Helmholtz Center Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany; Department of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Sanne de Wit
- Habit Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Casaril AM, Vichaya EG, Rishi MR, Ford BG, Dantzer R. Lipopolysaccharide does not alter behavioral response to successive negative contrast in mice. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2021; 238:691-697. [PMID: 33410982 PMCID: PMC8075575 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-020-05721-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2020] [Accepted: 11/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reduced motivation is one of the main symptomatic features of inflammation-induced depression. However, the exact nature of inflammation-induced alterations in motivation remains to be fully defined. As inflammation has been shown to increase sensitivity to negative stimuli, the present series of experiments was initiated to determine whether systemic inflammation induced by infra-septic doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in mice influences consummatory and instrumental responding to successive negative contrast. METHODS Successive negative contrast was operationally defined by a shift to a lower value reward than the one mice were trained with. Mice were trained to drink a high sucrose concentration solution and exposed to an acute shift to a lower concentration of sucrose. In another series of experiments, mice were trained to nose poke for chocolate pellets according to a fixed reinforcement schedule 10 (10 nose pokes for the food reinforcement) and exposed to a shift to a lower reward value (decreased number of chocolate pellets or replacement of chocolate pellets by less preferred grain pellets). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was administered at the dose of 0.33 1 mg/kg 24 h before the shift. RESULTS Mice trained to drink a high sucrose concentration responded to the shift in reward value by a reduction in the volume of sucrose consumed and a decrease in lick numbers and bout durations. Mice trained to nose poke for chocolate pellets responded to the shift by alterations in their total number of nose pokes. In both conditions, LPS had no consistent effect on the response to the shift in reward value. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate a high variability in the effects of LPS on successive negative contrast and fail to provide evidence in favor of the hypothesis that LPS increases sensitivity to decreases in expected rewards.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angela M Casaril
- Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Neurobiotechnology Research Group, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, 96160-000, Brazil
| | - Elisabeth G Vichaya
- Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76798, USA
| | - M Raafay Rishi
- Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Bianca G Ford
- Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Robert Dantzer
- Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Trask S, Shipman ML, Green JT, Bouton ME. Some factors that restore goal-direction to a habitual behavior. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2020; 169:107161. [PMID: 31927081 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Revised: 12/19/2019] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Recent findings from our laboratory suggest that an extensively-practiced instrumental behavior can appear to be a goal-directed action (rather than a habit) when a second behavior is added and reinforced during intermixed final sessions (Shipman et al., 2018). The present experiments were designed to explore and understand this finding. All used the taste aversion method of devaluing the reinforcer to distinguish between goal-directed actions and habits. Experiment 1 confirmed that reinforcing a second response in a separate context (but not mere exposure to that context) can return an extensively-trained habit to the status of goal-directed action. Experiment 2 showed that training of the second response needs to be intermixed with training of the first response to produce this effect; training the second response after the first-response training was complete preserved the first response as a habit. Experiment 3 demonstrated that reinforcing the second response with a different reinforcer breaks the habit status of the first response. Experiment 4 found that free reinforcers (that were not response-contingent) were sufficient to restore goal-directed performance. Together, the results suggest that unexpected reinforcer delivery can render a habitual response goal-directed again.
Collapse
|
5
|
Gámez AM, Bernal-Gamboa R. The reoccurrence of voluntary behavior in humans is reduced by retrieval cues from extinction. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2019; 200:102945. [PMID: 31665622 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Revised: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Changes in the temporal as well as the physical context produces the reappearance of extinguished behaviors. Furthermore, combining both kinds of contextual stimuli often causes greater levels of recovery. The current experiment explored the impact of extinction reminders on spontaneous recovery, renewal, and a combination of both effects using an instrumental learning task with humans. All participants learned to shoot at enemies in a videogame. Then, throughout extinction, the instrumental response was eliminated. We found a return of the extinguished behavior by introducing a retention interval of 48 h, by changing the physical background and by testing participants in a spatiotemporal context different from the extinction context. However, we also found that the presentation of a stimulus directly associated with extinction attenuates all three forms of operant reoccurrence. These results are consistent with the perspective that emphasizes that context plays a key role in response-recovery phenomena. Moreover, our findings may be promissory for therapeutic strategies involving relapse treatment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A Matías Gámez
- Universidad de Jaén, Spain; Universidad de Cádiz, Spain.
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Simon NW, Moghaddam B. Methylphenidate has nonlinear dose effects on cued response inhibition in adults but not adolescents. Brain Res 2016; 1654:171-176. [PMID: 27431940 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2016.07.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2016] [Revised: 06/16/2016] [Accepted: 07/15/2016] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Ongoing development of the dopamine system during adolescence may provide a partial mechanism for behavioral and psychiatric vulnerabilities. Despite early evidence for a hyperactive adolescent dopaminergic system, recent data suggest that adolescent dopamine may be functionally hypoactive compared to in adults. While this distinction has been established in response to dopaminergic drugs and natural rewards, little is known about age-related differences in cognitive efficacy of dopaminergic drugs. Using a recently established Cued Response Inhibition Task, we tested the effects of acute systemic methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, on response inhibition and response initiation in adolescent and adults rats. First, we replicated previous data that adolescents are able to inhibit a response to a cue on par with adults, but are slower to produce a rewarded response after a stop cue. Next, we observed that methylphenidate modulated response inhibition in adult rats, with low dose (0.3mg/kg) improving inhibition, and high dose (3mg/kg) impairing performance. This dose-response pattern is commonly observed with psychostimulant cognitive modulation. In adolescents, however, methylphenidate had no effect on response inhibition at any dose. Latency of response initiation after the stop cue was not affected by methylphenidate in either adult or adolescent rats. These data establish that dose-response of a commonly prescribed psychostimulant medication is different in adolescents and adults. They further demonstrate that healthy adolescent response inhibition is not as sensitive to psychostimulants as in adults, supporting the idea that the dopamine system is hypoactive in adolescence. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Adolescent plasticity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas W Simon
- University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neuroscience, A210 Langley Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States
| | - Bita Moghaddam
- University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neuroscience, A210 Langley Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Bjork JM, Smith AR, Chen G, Hommer DW. Psychosocial problems and recruitment of incentive neurocircuitry: exploring individual differences in healthy adolescents. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2013; 1:570-77. [PMID: 21927631 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2011.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Maturational differences in brain responsiveness to rewards have been implicated in the increased rates of injury and death in adolescents from behavior-related causes. However, much of this morbidity is related to drug intoxication or other externalizing behaviors, and may be concentrated in a subset of adolescents who are at psychosocial or neurobiological risk. To examine whether individual differences in psychosocial and behavioral symptomatology relate to activation of motivational neurocircuitry, we scanned 26 psychiatrically healthy adolescents using fMRI as they performed a monetary incentive delay task. Overall Problem Density on the Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI-OPD) correlated positively with activation of ventral mesofrontal cortex (mFC) during anticipation of responding for rewards (vs responding for no incentive). In addition, DUSI-OPD correlated positively with right ventral striatum recruitment during anticipation of responding to win rewards (vs responding for no incentive or to avoid losses of identical magnitudes). Finally, a psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis indicated that increased connectivity between nucleus accumbens and portions of anterior cingulate and mFC as a function of reward prospects also correlated with DUSI-OPD. These findings extend previous reports demonstrating that in adolescents, individual differences in reactivity of motivational neurocircuitry relate to different facets of impulsivity or externalizing behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- James M Bjork
- Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|