Lever-press duration as a measure of frustration in sucrose and drug reinforcement

Vasquez, Tileena E. S.; McAuley, Ryan J; Gupta, Nikita S; Koshy, Shyny; Marmol-Contreras, Yorkiris; Green, Thomas A.

doi:10.1007/s00213-020-05742-2

Cited by 3 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The type of frustration measured by lever press durations is related to extinguishing responding for a reinforcer. Recent research demonstrated that lever press durations can be used as a measure of frustration level ( Vasquez et al, 2021 ), and rats exhibited their longest lever press durations late in extinction sessions or shortly before breaking under a PR schedule for drug. Correlations of frustration scores for sucrose FN tasks versus PR fentanyl infusions in Figure 3 demonstrate that breaking under a PR procedure for fentanyl can be predicted by individual differences in FN sucrose responding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We propose an animal model to study another facet of substance use disorder-related behavior: that of frustration. Previous research showed that rats increase lever-press durations under conditions of frustration for drug or sucrose reward ( Vasquez et al, 2021 ). Our data show that this measure of frustration is a robust, replicable, and sensitive surrogate for frustration behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual Differences in Frustrative Nonreward Behavior for Sucrose in Rats Predict Motivation for Fentanyl under Progressive Ratio

Vasquez

Shah

et al. 2021

eNeuro

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual Differences in Frustrative Nonreward Behavior for Sucrose in Rats Predict Motivation for Fentanyl under Progressive Ratio

Vasquez

Shah

et al. 2021

eNeuro

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“…Though we have previously identified robust increases in BP durations across three different reinforcers [ 9 ], the extent of robustness, individual differences, and sex differences, have not been previously presented. In the current manuscript, we further analyzed our male and female data for both sucrose and fentanyl self-administration.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Our previous findings were obtained using male rats only [ 9 ]. Hence, in this investigation, we measured BP durations during FR5, EXT, and PR in male and female rats to both replicate the operant frustration effect in males and explore sex as a biological performance variable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our laboratory has proposed a novel way to study frustration-related behavior while simultaneously exploring motivation by simply recording bar press (BP) durations. In exploratory studies, we have shown that rats exhibit increased BP durations during frustrating conditions such as progressive ratio (PR) and extinction (EXT), where achieving a reinforcement is made more difficult or impossible, respectively [ 9 ]. This phenomenon, which will be referred to as the operant frustration effect, presents in rats self-administering drug and natural rewards alike—including cocaine, fentanyl, and sucrose pellets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bar press durations as a reliable and robust measure of frustration-related operant behavior: Sensitivity to incentive downshift and dose-response paradigms

Mármol Contreras,

Vasquez,

Shah

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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In humans, frustrating experiences are known to trigger relapse events and individuals with higher frustration intolerance show increased risk of developing substance use disorders (SUDs). Despite this clear relationship, frustration-related behavior is seldom studied concurrently with self-administration behavior in rodent models. A major obstacle has been the lack of robust, quantitative assays of frustration-related operant behavior thus far. In previous work, we identified increased bar press (BP) durations in response to frustrating conditions in rats self-administering natural or drug rewards. Here, to propose BP durations as a measure of frustration-related behavior, we conducted an operant successive negative contrast (oSNC) study and found that increases in BP durations are observed in the absence of increased effort, providing evidence that this is a psychological phenomenon. Moreover, we assess the viability of widespread use of BP duration measurements as a behavioral tool by quantifying performance as it pertains to sensitivity, robustness, replicability, and sex differences. We conclude that increases in BP durations are a highly sensitive psychological response to frustrating conditions and that this measure is robust, replicable, and applicable to both sexes.

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Slow-rising and fast-falling dopaminergic dynamics jointly adjust negative prediction error in the ventral striatum

Shikano

Yagishita

Tanaka

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Great expectations can lead to greater disappointment when the desired results are not achieved. Although it is well-documented that a better-than-expected reward is encoded quantitatively via midbrain dopaminergic (DA) activity, it has been less addressed experimentally whether disappointment, a worse-than-expected outcome is also expressed quantitatively by the DA signal. We show that the degree of disappointment is quantified by the magnitude of a transient decrease in the extracellular DA concentration (DA dip) in the ventral striatum of mice. We set up a lever press task on a fixed ratio (FR) schedule requiring five lever presses as an effort for a food reward (FR5). Mice occasionally checked the food magazine without a reward before completing the task. The percentage of this premature magazine entry (PME) increased as the number of lever presses approached five. This behavioral readout shows rising expectations with increasing proximity to task completion, leading to greater disappointment in the mice. Fiber photometry of the extracellular DA dynamics in the ventral striatum using a fluorescent protein (genetically encoded GPCR-activation-based-DA sensor: GRAB-DA2m) revealed that the amplitude of the DA dip following a PME was correlated with the percentage of the PME, demonstrating a monotonic relationship between the DA dip amplitude and the degree of disappointment. Computational modeling of the lever press task implementing temporal difference errors and state transitions replicated the positive correlation between the PME frequency and DA dip amplitude during improvement of the FR5 task. We propose that the degree of disappointment during making an effort for a goal is represented monotonically by the magnitude of the DA dip in the ventral striatum, which may guide behavioral adjustment.

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Lever-press duration as a measure of frustration in sucrose and drug reinforcement

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Individual Differences in Frustrative Nonreward Behavior for Sucrose in Rats Predict Motivation for Fentanyl under Progressive Ratio

Individual Differences in Frustrative Nonreward Behavior for Sucrose in Rats Predict Motivation for Fentanyl under Progressive Ratio

Bar press durations as a reliable and robust measure of frustration-related operant behavior: Sensitivity to incentive downshift and dose-response paradigms

Slow-rising and fast-falling dopaminergic dynamics jointly adjust negative prediction error in the ventral striatum

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