Impulsive Choice Predicts Poor Working Memory in Male Rats

Abstract

A number of maladaptive behaviors and poor health outcomes (e.g., substance abuse, obesity) correlate with impulsive choice, which describes the tendency to prefer smaller, immediate rewards in lieu of larger, delayed rewards. Working memory deficits are often reported in those diagnosed with the same maladaptive behaviors. Human studies suggest that impulsive choice is associated with working memory ability but, to date, only one study has explored the association between working memory and impulsive choice in rats and no relation was reported. The current study reevaluated the association between working memory and impulsive choice in 19 male Long-Evans rats. Psychophysical adjusting procedures were used to quantify working memory (titrating-delay match-to-position procedure) and impulsive choice (adjusting delay procedure). Rats were partitioned into low- and high-impulsive groups based on performance in the impulsive choice task. Low-impulsive rats performed significantly better in the working memory assessment. Across all rats, impulsive choice was negatively correlated with working memory performance. These findings support the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex function, specifically, working memory, is related to impulsive choice. Future research might profitably examine the experimental variables designed to influence working memory to evaluate the effects of these variables on impulsive choice and maladaptive behaviors with which it is correlated.

High trait impulsivity potentiates the effects of chronic pain on impulsive behavior

“…Trait impulsivity differences manifest in other behavioral domains (Hayward et al, 2016). For instance, it has been observed that HI animals perform worse in working memory tasks (James et al, 2007, Renda et al, 2014) and present increased anxiety-like behavior(Stein et al, 2015) though some conflicting evidence has also been reported (Velázquez-Sánchez et al, 2014). Furthermore, HI predicts nicotine and cocaine self-administration (Anker et al, 2009, Dalley et al, 2007, Diergaarde et al, 2008, Perry et al, 2008) and increases seeking behavior for sucrose and palatable food (Diergaarde et al, 2009, Velázquez-Sánchez et al, 2014).…”

A Model for the Peak-Interval Task Based on Neural Oscillation-Delimited States

“…Another limitation is that there is not a source of bias in our model. Bias could arise from impulsive responding (Matell and Portugal, 2007;Renda et al, 2014), for example. The model does not capture correctly the pressing rate distribution of rat 3, whose peak response lies 5 to 10 seconds delayed from the target time.…”

Intertemporal choice and delayed gratification.

“…Namely, individual differences in working memory correlate with differences in intertemporal choice (Shamosh et al, 2008), and explicit training in working memory performance reduces impulsive choice (Bickel, Yi, Landes, Hill, & Baxter, 2011). Experiments with rats replicate the correlational work, with subjects who chose larger, later options in a delay choice intertemporal choice task also performing well on an operant delayed matching-to-sample working memory task (Renda, Stein, & Madden, 2014). A study using a radial arm maze task to test working memory in rats, however, did not show a relationship between intertemporal choice and working memory (Dellu-Hagedorn & Dellu, 2006).…”