Inadequate early social experience increases the incentive salience of reward-related cues in adulthood

Lomanowska, Anna M.; Lovic, Vedran; Rankine, Michael J.; Mooney, Skyler J.; Robinson, Terry E.; Kraemer, Gary W.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.01.033

Cited by 79 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Animals who experience for the first time the sucrose pellets under highly uncertain conditions of prediction might develop a persistently greater interest in the CS+ than animals that are initially exposed to the sucrose pellets with a more certain delivery. It also might be relevant to note that rats reared in isolation develop a stronger propensity to sign-track [34] and to prefer uncertain, suboptimal rewards in a dual-choice test [35] compared with individuals reared in socially enriched environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial uncertainty in Pavlovian reward prediction persistently elevates incentive salience and extends sign-tracking to normally unattractive cues

Robinson¹,

Anselme²,

Fischer³

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

114

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Uncertainty is a component of many gambling games and may play a role in incentive motivation and cue attraction. Uncertainty can increase the attractiveness for predictors of reward in the Pavlovian procedure of autoshaping, visible as enhanced sign-tracking (or approach and nibbles) by rats of a metal lever whose sudden appearance acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS+) to predict sucrose pellets as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Here we examined how reward uncertainty might enhance incentive salience as sign-tracking both in intensity and by broadening the range of attractive CS+s. We also examined whether initially-induced uncertainty enhancements of CS+ attraction can endure beyond uncertainty itself, and persist even when Pavlovian prediction becomes 100% certain. Our results show that uncertainty can broaden incentive salience attribution to make CS cues attractive that would otherwise not be (either because they are too distal from reward or too risky to normally attract sign-tracking). In addition, uncertainty enhancement of CS+ incentive salience, once induced by initial exposure, persisted even when Pavlovian CS-UCS correlations later rose toward 100% certainty in prediction. Persistence suggests an enduring incentive motivation enhancement potentially relevant to gambling, which in some ways resembles incentive-sensitization. Higher motivation to uncertain CS+s leads to more potent attraction to these cues when they predict the delivery of uncertain rewards. In humans, those cues might possibly include the sights and sounds associated with gambling, which contribute a major component of the play immersion experienced by problematic gamblers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial uncertainty in Pavlovian reward prediction persistently elevates incentive salience and extends sign-tracking to normally unattractive cues

Robinson¹,

Anselme²,

Fischer³

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

114

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In contrast, we found that young, middle-aged and old mice do not differ in their performance in pavlovian (autoshaping) and operant conditioning paradigms, involving passive and active associative learning. Both, young mice (Harb and Almeida, 2014) and rats (Lomanowska et al, 2011; Anderson et al, 2013), develop sign−, goal− or intermediate-tracking behaviors during pavlovian conditioning. Similar conditioned learning responses were observed in the present study and, importantly, the distribution of response patterns was not a function of age, indicating that all the known features of conditioned learning are preserved during aging.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging

Harb

Sousa

Zihl

et al. 2014

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Eating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditioning changes as a function of age. Operant and pavlovian conditioning experiments (rewarding stimulus was a palatable food) in male mice (aged 3, 6, and 15 months) showed that implicit (non-declarative) memory remains intact during aging. Two other essential components of eating behavior, motivation and hedonic preference for rewarding foods, were also found not to be altered in aging mice. Specifically, hedonic responding by satiated mice to isocaloric foods of differing sensory properties (sucrose, milk) was similar in all age groups; importantly, however, this paradigm disclosed that older animals adjust their energy intake according to energetic need. Based on the assumption that the mechanisms that control feeding are conserved across species, it would appear that overeating and obesity in humans reflects a mismatch between ancient physiological mechanisms and today's cue-laden environment. The implication of the present results showing that aging does not impair the ability to learn stimulus-food associations is that the risk of overeating in response to food cues is maintained through to old age.

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“…Second, sign-trackers exert more instrumental effort than goal-trackers for presentation of the CS in the absence of food reward. Thus, the cue acts as a more powerful conditioned reinforcer for sign-trackers than for goal-trackers Lomanowska et al, 2011;Meyer et al, 2012). Evidence demonstrating individual variation in the third fundamental property of an incentive stimulus, i.e.…”

Section: Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of learning-related dopamine signals in addiction vulnerability

Huys

Tobler

Hasler

et al. 2014

Progress in Brain Research

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Psychostimulants such as methylphenidate (MPH) and antidepressants such as fluoxetine (FLX) are widely used in the treatment of various mental disorders or as cognitive enhancers. These medications are often combined, for example, to treat comorbid disorders. There is a considerable body of evidence from animal models indicating that individually these psychotropic medications can have detrimental effects on the brain and behavior, especially when given during sensitive periods of brain development. However, almost no studies investigate possible interactions between these drugs. This is surprising given that their combined neurochemical effects (enhanced dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission) mimic some effects of illicit drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine. Here, we summarize recent studies in juvenile rats on the molecular effects in the mid-and forebrain and associated behavioral changes, after such combination treatments. Our findings indicate that these combined MPH + FLX treatments can produce similar molecular changes as seen after cocaine exposure while inducing behavioral changes indicative of dysregulated mood and motivation, effects that often endure into adulthood. Tables: 2 References: 254 ABSTRACT Dopaminergic signals play a mathematically precise role in reward-related learning, and variations in dopaminergic signalling have been implicated in vulnerability to addiction. Here, we provide a detailed overview of the relationship between theoretical, mathematical and experimental accounts of phasic dopamine signalling, with implications for the role of learning-related dopamine signalling in addiction and related disorders. We describe the theoretical and behavioural characteristics of model-free learning based on errors in the prediction of reward, including step-by-step explanations of the underlying equations. We then use recent insights from an animal model that highlights individual variation in learning during a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm to describe overlapping aspects of incentive salience attribution and model-free learning. We argue that this provides a computationally coherent account of some features of addiction. CONTENTS

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Inadequate early social experience increases the incentive salience of reward-related cues in adulthood

Cited by 79 publications

References 57 publications

Initial uncertainty in Pavlovian reward prediction persistently elevates incentive salience and extends sign-tracking to normally unattractive cues

Initial uncertainty in Pavlovian reward prediction persistently elevates incentive salience and extends sign-tracking to normally unattractive cues

Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging

The role of learning-related dopamine signals in addiction vulnerability

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