Occasion setters attain incentive motivational value: implications for contextual influences on reward-seeking

Abstract

The context in which reward-paired cues are encountered can resolve ambiguity and set the occasion for appropriate reward-seeking. The psychological processes by which contexts regulate reward-seeking remain unclear as contexts are diffuse and difficult to isolate from other stimuli. To overcome this, we modeled a context as a phasic and discrete event-an occasion setter (OS)-which allowed for control over its presentation and influence on cue-driven rewardseeking. This allowed us to directly assess how OSs regulate the predictive and motivational significance of Pavlovian cues. Male rats (n = 50) were trained in a Pavlovian procedure where the presentation of an ambiguous conditioned stimulus (CS) was reinforced only if preceded by an occasion setting cue. We assessed the motivational value of the OS and CS alone or in combination using tests of conditioned reinforcement. Rats enhanced conditioned approach to the reward port during the CS when it was preceded by the OS. When allowed the opportunity, rats responded more to obtain presentations of the CS in combination with the OS than the CS alone. Critically, rats also worked to obtain presentations of the OS alone more than the CS alone, and this was resistant to manipulations of the value of the OS. We conclude that occasion setting can act via incentive motivational mechanisms and that, apart from resolving predictive information about ambiguous reward-paired cues, OSs themselves generate states of appetitive motivation that can facilitate reward-seeking.

Occasion setters determine responses of putative dopamine neurons to discriminative stimuli

“…The choice of a long interval between the OS and DS (and hence reward opportunity) was motivated by previous research which demonstrated that longer intervals between stimuli (and different sensory modalities; e.g. auditory and visual) favour the acquisition of occasion setting (Fraser and Holland, 2019).…”

“…For example, occasion setting, a phenomenon that has long been studied in the fields of learning and behavior (Fraser and Holland, 2019), has not been investigated in the context of DA neurons yet. In occasion setting a background stimulus (the occasion setter, OS) indicates that the relationship between a second stimulus (e.g.…”

“…At a psychological level, the OS acts as a modulator of conditioned behaviour triggered by the second stimulus (Bonardi, Robinson, and Jennings, 2017;Trask, Thrailkill, and Bouton, 2017). Furthermore, the OS can facilitate rewardseeking, rather than merely simplifying ambiguous cue-reward pairings (Fraser and Janak, 2019).…”

Chitosan/Phosphate Rock-Derived Natural Polymeric Composite to Sequester Divalent Copper Ions from Water

“…Functional beads were developed by using water soluble agar aldehyde and CH for the removal amido black dye [ 29 ]. Phosphorus-containing composites have received considerable attention due to their excellent chelating (due to the Lewis base properties of phosphate group) and metal-adhesion properties [ 30 ]. Magnetic phosphorylated CH composited was developed for the highly efficient and selective removal of bivalent lead ions from water [ 31 ].…”

Occasion setters determine responses of putative DA neurons to discriminative stimuli

“…At a psychological level, the OS acts as a modulator of conditioned behaviour triggered by the second stimulus (Bonardi, Robinson, and Jennings, 2017;Trask, Thrailkill, and Bouton, 2017). Furthermore, the OS can facilitate reward-seeking, rather than merely simplifying ambiguous cue-reward pairings (Fraser and Janak, 2019).…”