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

2014 ◽  
Vol 266 ◽  
pp. 119-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike J.F. Robinson ◽  
Patrick Anselme ◽  
Adam M. Fischer ◽  
Kent C. Berridge
Keyword(s):  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Reward Prediction ◽  
Initial Uncertainty

scholarly journals Long-lasting contribution of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core, but not dorsal lateral striatum, to sign-tracking

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt M. Fraser ◽  
Patricia H. Janak
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Nigrostriatal System ◽  
Dopamine Antagonist ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Sprague Dawley ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Reversible Inactivation ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Extended Training ◽  
Accumbens Core

AbstractThe attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues is dependent on dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core. These dopamine signals conform to traditional reward-prediction error signals and have been shown to diminish with time. Here we examined if the diminishing dopamine signal in the nucleus accumbens core has functional implications for the expression of sign-tracking, a Pavlovian conditioned response indicative of the attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues. Food-restricted male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in a Pavlovian paradigm in which an insertable lever predicted delivery of food reward in a nearby food cup. After 7 or 14 training sessions, rats received infusions of saline, the dopamine antagonist flupenthixol (100 mM), or the GABA agonists baclofen and muscimol (0.5 mM baclofen/0.05 mM muscimol) into the nucleus accumbens core or the dorsal lateral striatum. Dopamine antagonism within the nucleus accumbens core attenuated sign-tracking, whereas reversible inactivation did not affect sign-tracking but increased non-specific food cup checking behaviors. Neither drug in the dorsal lateral striatum affected sign-tracking behavior. Critically, extended training did not alter these effects. Though extended experience with an incentive stimulus may reduce cue-evoked dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core, this does not alter the function of dopamine in this region to promote Pavlovian cue approach nor result in the recruitment of dorsal lateral striatal systems for this behavior. These data support the notion that dopamine within the mesoaccumbal system, but not the nigrostriatal system, contributes critically to incentive motivational processes independent of the length of training.AbbreviationsDLSdorsal lateral striatumGTgoal-trackerINintermediate responderNAcCnucleus accumbens coreSTsign-tracker

scholarly journals Risk-Promoting Effects of Reward-Paired Cues in Human Sign- and Goal-Trackers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariya Cherkasova ◽  
Eve Limbrick-Oldfield ◽  
Luke Clark ◽  
Jason J. S. Barton ◽  
A. Jon Stoessl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Reward Delivery ◽  
Human Volunteers ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Goal Tracking

The incentive sensitization theory of addiction proposes that through repeated associations with addictive rewards, addiction-related stimuli acquire a disproportionately powerful motivational pull on behaviour. Animal research suggests trait-like individual variation in the degree of incentive salience attribution to reward-predictive cues, defined phenotypically as sign-tracking (high) and goal-tracking (low incentive salience attribution). While these phenotypes have been linked to addiction features in rodents, their translational validity has been little studied. Here, we examined whether sign- and goal-tracking in healthy human volunteers modulates the effects of reward-paired cues on cost-benefit decision making. Sign-tracking was measured in a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm as the amount of eye gaze fixation on the reward-predictive cue versus the location of impending reward delivery. In Study 1 (Cherkasova et al, 2018), participants were randomly assigned to perform a two-choice lottery task in which rewards were either accompanied (cued, n=63) or unaccompanied (uncued, n=68) by money images and casino jingles. In Study 2, participants (n=58) performed cued and uncued versions of the task in a within-subjects design. Across both studies, cues promoted riskier choice, and both studies yielded evidence of goal-tracking being associated with greater risk-promoting effects of cues. These findings are at odds with the notion of sign-trackers being preferentially susceptible to the influence of reward cues on behavior and point to the role of mechanisms besides incentive salience in mediating such influences.

scholarly journals Ghrelin enhances food odor conditioning in healthy humans: an fMRI study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung Eun Han ◽  
Johannes Frasnelli ◽  
Yashar Zeighami ◽  
Kevin Larcher ◽  
Julie Boyle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Food Odor ◽  
Healthy Humans ◽  
Incentive Value ◽  
Reward Prediction ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Odor Conditioning

SummaryVulnerability to obesity includes eating in response to food cues, which acquire incentive value through conditioning. The conditioning process is largely subserved by dopamine, theorized to encode the discrepancy between expected and actual rewards, known as the reward prediction error (RPE). Ghrelin is a gut-derived homeostatic hormone that triggers hunger and eating. Despite extensive evidence that ghrelin stimulates dopamine, it remains unknown in humans if ghrelin modulates food cue learning. Here we show using functional magnetic resonance imaging that intravenously administered ghrelin increased RPE-related activity in dopamine-responsive areas during food odor conditioning in healthy volunteers. Participants responded faster to food odor-associated cues and perceived them to be more pleasant following ghrelin injection. Ghrelin also increased functional connectivity between hippocampus and ventral striatum. Our work demonstrates that ghrelin promotes the ability of cues to acquire incentive salience, and has implications for the development of vulnerability to obesity.

scholarly journals Effects of the cannabinoid receptor agonist CP-55,940 on incentive salience attribution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Gheidi ◽  
Lora M. Cope ◽  
Christopher J. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Benjamin N. Froehlich ◽  
Rachel Atkinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cannabinoid Receptor ◽  
High Dose ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Prelimbic Cortex ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Pavlovian Conditioned Approach ◽  
Conditioned Approach ◽  
Cp 55,940 ◽  
Goal Tracking ◽  
Cannabinoid Agonist

AbstractPavlovian conditioned approach paradigms are used to characterize the nature of motivational behaviors in response to stimuli as either directed toward the cue (i.e., sign-tracking) or the site of reward delivery (i.e., goal-tracking). Recent evidence has shown that activity of the endocannabinoid system increases dopaminergic activity in the mesocorticolimbic system, and other studies have shown that sign-tracking behaviors are dependent on dopamine. Therefore, we hypothesized that administration of a cannabinoid agonist would increase sign-tracking and decrease goal-tracking behaviors. Forty-seven adult male Sprague Dawley rats were given a low, medium, or high dose of the cannabinoid agonist CP-55,940 (N=12 per group) or saline (N=11) before Pavlovian conditioned approach training. A separate group of rats (N=32) were sacrificed after PCA training for measurement of cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) using in situ hybridization. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, CP-55,940 dose-dependently decreased sign-tracking and increased goal-tracking behavior. CB1 expression was higher in sign-trackers compared to goal-trackers in the prelimbic cortex, but there were no significant differences in CB1 or FAAH expression in the infralimbic cortex, dCA1, dCA3, dorsal dentate gyrus, or amygdala. These results demonstrate that cannabinoid signaling can specifically influence behavioral biases toward sign- or goal-tracking. Pre-existing differences in CB1 expression patterns, particularly in the prelimbic cortex, could contribute to individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to reward cues.

Sign tracking predicts cue-induced but not drug-primed reinstatement to methamphetamine seeking in rats: Effects of oxytocin treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 1271-1279
Author(s):  
Nicholas A Everett ◽  
Harry A Carey ◽  
Jennifer L Cornish ◽  
Sarah J Baracz
Keyword(s):  
Jugular Vein ◽  
The Self ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Sucrose Pellet ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Drug Seeking ◽  
Drug Reward ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Addiction Therapy

Background: The incentive sensitisation theory of addiction posits that drug-associated stimuli become imbued with incentive motivational properties, driving pathological drug seeking. However, pre-existing variability in the incentive salience to non-drug reward cues (‘sign trackers’ (STs); ‘goal trackers’ (GTs)) is also predictive of the desire for and relapse to cocaine and opioids. Here, we asked whether variation in propensity to attribute incentive salience to a food cue is predictive of reinstatement to the highly addictive psychostimulant methamphetamine (METH), and whether treatment with the promising anti-addiction therapy oxytocin differentially reduces METH behaviour between STs and GTs. Methods: Rats were trained to associate a Pavlovian cue with delivery of a sucrose pellet over 8 days. They then received jugular vein catheters for intravenous METH self-administration, followed by behavioural extinction, and cue-induced and METH-primed reinstatement to METH-seeking behaviours. Oxytocin was administered prior to self-administration and reinstatement tests. Results: Despite the self-administration of similar amounts of METH, STs reinstated more to METH cues than did GTs, yet METH-priming reinstated STs and GTs similarly. Furthermore, oxytocin attenuated cue-induced reinstatement more so in STs than in GTs, and reduced METH-primed reinstatement to a greater extent in the top quartile of reinstaters, indicating that oxytocin treatment may be most effective for those at highest risk of addiction. Conclusions: This pre-existing bias towards reward cues presents a possible tool to screen for METH addiction susceptibility and may be useful for understanding the neurobiology of addiction and for pharmacotherapeutic discovery.

scholarly journals The lateral hypothalamus and orexinergic transmission in the paraventricular thalamus promote the attribution of incentive salience to reward-associated cues

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L Haight ◽  
Paolo Campus ◽  
Cristina E Maria-Rios ◽  
Allison M Johnson ◽  
Marin S Klumpner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Response ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Incentive Salience ◽  
Sprague Dawley ◽  
Conditioned Reward ◽  
Hypothalamic Area ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Pavlovian Conditioned Approach ◽  
Conditioned Approach

AbstractRationalePrior research suggests that inputs from the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) contribute to the attribution of incentive salience to Pavlovian-conditioned reward cues. However, a causal role for the LHA in this phenomenon has not been demonstrated. In addition, it is unknown which hypothalamic neurotransmitter or peptide system(s) are involved in mediating incentive salience attribution.ObjectivesTo examine: 1) the role of the LHA in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues, and 2) the role of orexinergic signaling in the PVT on the expression of Pavlovian conditioned approach (PavCA) behavior, a reflection of incentive salience attribution.MethodsMale Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral excitotoxic lesions of the LHA prior to the acquisition of Pavlovian conditioned approach (PavCA) behavior. A separate cohort of male rats acquired PavCA behavior and were characterized as sign-trackers (STs) or goal-trackers (GTs) based on their conditioned response. The orexin 1 receptor (OX1r) antagonist SB-334867, or the orexin 2 receptor (OX2r) antagonist TCS-OX2-29, were then administered directly into the PVT to assess the effects of these pharmacological agents on the expression of PavCA behavior and on the conditioned reinforcing properties of the Pavlovian reward cue.ResultsLesions of the LHA before training attenuated the development of lever-directed (sign-tracking) behaviors in the PavCA paradigm, without affecting magazine-directed (goal-tracking) behaviors. In STs, administration of the OX1r antagonist into the PVT reduced lever-directed behaviors and increased magazine-directed behaviors; while administration of the OX2r antagonist only reduced lever-directed behaviors. Further, OX2r, but not OX1r, antagonism was able to reduce the incentive motivational value of the conditioned stimulus on a conditioned reinforcement test in STs. The behavior of GTs was unaffected by orexinergic antagonism in the PVT.ConclusionsThe LHA is necessary for the attribution of incentive salience to reward cues and, thereby, the development of a sign-tracking conditioned response. Furthermore, blockade of orexin signaling in the PVT attenuates the incentive value of a Pavlovian reward cue. These data suggest that hypothalamic orexin inputs to the PVT are a key component of the circuitry that encodes the incentive motivational value of reward cues and promotes maladaptive cue-driven behaviors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document