[Behavior therapy as a first choice in the management of phobias].
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Behavior Therapy↗
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Results for “Choice Behavior”
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The timing of food availability affects growth in chicks.
Three experiments challenged the ability of domestic chicks to grow normally by differentially restricting when and for how long food was available. In Experiments 1 and 2, food was available for six 1-hr, three 2-hr, two 3-hr, or one 6-hr (a.m., p.m.) periods/day over the first 3 posthatch weeks. Control groups received continuous access to food. In Experiment 3, different amounts of light surrounded the 6-hr feeding period. In Experiments 2 and 3, chicks composed their own diets from separate sources high in protein or carbohydrate. Except for the single 6-hr meal preceding dark, large meals at other times of day impaired growth--primarily because chicks consumed insufficient dietary protein and ate less earlier in the light phase. We conclude that both the amount eaten and the proportion of the diet consumed as protein at given times of the day are phylogenetically acquired strategies that fit the omnivorous, diurnal chicken to its niche, independent of its momentary requirements, and appear early in development.
Analysis of Variance↗
Restrained rats learn amphetamine-conditioned locomotion, but not place preference.
The relationship between the motor-activating and positive-reinforcing properties of d-amphetamine was examined in the place-preference paradigm. Two groups of animals were trained to associate one environment with amphetamine, and another environment with saline. Animals that were allowed to locomote in both environments during training later demonstrated a preference for the amphetamine-paired environment; animals in which hyperactivity was limited in both environments later failed to show any preference. However, both groups of animals demonstrated a conditioned locomotor activation to the amphetamine-associated environments. Our results suggest that a place-preference demonstrated for an amphetamine-paired environment depends on the ability of the drug to increase locomotor behavior.
Animals↗
Effect of desglycinamide-lysine vasopressin (DG-LVP) on sexually motivated T-maze behavior of the male rat.
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Animals↗
Effects of varying temporal exposure to lead on behavioral development in herring gull (Larus argentatus) chicks.
In humans and other animals, lead exposure in infants and young animals affects anatomic, physiologic, behavioral, and intellectual development. Yet it is largely unknown whether the effects occur gradually or are more pronounced if exposure occurs at particular stages. In this article we examine the effects of temporal differences in lead exposure on early behavioral development in herring gulls (Larus argentatus). We randomly assigned 64 1-2-day-old gull chicks to one of four treatment groups to receive a lead acetate dose at age 6 days (100 micrograms/g) or 12 days (50 or 100 micrograms/g), or to receive matched volume saline injections on the same days. Behavioral tests were performed at 2-5-day intervals to examine locomotion, balance, righting response, thermoregulation, and visual cliff. Flight behavior was examined at fledging. Results were compared with previously studied exposures at 2, 4, and 6 days of age. Righting response and balance were disrupted immediately after exposure, regardless of the timing of exposure. Thermoregulatory, visual cliff, and individual recognition behavior were more affected by exposure at 2-6 days, and there was little effect with exposure at 12 days. These results confirm the existence of critical periods for certain behaviors to lead exposure in developing herring gulls.
Aging↗
Self-administration of neurokinin substance P into the ventromedial caudate-putamen in rats.
There is evidence that the neurokinin substance P plays a role in learning and reinforcement processes. Reinforcing effects of substance P were found upon injection into several parts of the brain. The aim of the present study was to gauge possible reinforcing effects of microinjections of substance P into the ventromedial caudate-putamen in rats. Two different behavioral paradigms were employed. In the first experiment a two-compartment choice procedure was used and the rats could trigger substance P injections (500 pg per 5 nl injection volume) into the ventromedial caudate-putamen by entering one distinctive compartment. During the injection period, substance P-injected animals spent significantly more time in the drug-paired compartment than vehicle-injected controls. In the second experiment, nose-poking through a hole in one wall of the cage was used as the operant. Rats that could self-administer substance P (100 pg per 5 nl injection volume) into the ventromedial caudate-putamen emitted a significantly higher rate of operant responding on the first day of testing and a significantly lower rate on the third day compared to vehicle-injected animals. The experiments provide evidence that the administration of substance P into the ventromedial part of the caudate-putamen can have positive reinforcing effects, but that repeated injections can have aversive properties. These effects are discussed, firstly, with regard to the possible mechanisms of intrastriatal substance P on striatonigral and striatopallidal output systems and, secondly, with respect to their possible relevance in the study of the basal forebrain reinforcement system.
Animals↗
Cocaine self-administration and locomotor sensitization are not altered in CART knockout mice.
Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is a neuropeptide found throughout the brain, particularly in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and hypothalamus. CART was initially discovered and named based on the upregulation of its mRNA in the striatum after acute cocaine or amphetamine injection in rats. CART is also known to participate in a wider range of physiological functions including feeding, anxiety, bone resorption, and insulin regulation. In this report, we demonstrate that knockout mice lacking a functional CART gene show similar cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization and cocaine self-administration to their wild type siblings. Intravenous cocaine self-administration did not differ between CART wild type and knockout mice during acquisition, during schedules of reinforcement that require higher response ratios, or across a range of doses. In conclusion, these data indicate that CART is not integral to the effects of psychostimulants in mice lacking CART throughout development, although it may play a regulatory role in the intact animal.
Animals↗
Lighting up and slimming down: the effects of body weight and cigarette prices on adolescent smoking initiation.
This paper examines the influence of body weight, body image, and cigarette prices in determining adolescent smoking initiation. Adolescents who desire to lose weight may initiate smoking as a method of appetite control. Such behavior may undermine the goals of tobacco control policies that seek to prevent smoking initiation. Using a nationally representative panel of adolescents, we show that smoking initiation is more likely among females who are overweight, who report trying to lose weight, or who describe themselves as overweight. In contrast, neither objective nor subjective measures of weight predict smoking initiation by males. Higher cigarette prices decrease the probability of smoking initiation among males but have no impact on female smoking initiation. These gender-specific differences may help explain the mixed and inconclusive evidence of the impact of price on smoking initiation found in previous literature.
Adolescent↗
Neuronal responses to a delayed-response delayed-reward go/nogo task in the monkey posterior insular cortex.
Anatomical connections of the insular cortex suggest its involvement in cognition, emotion, memory, and behavioral manifestation. However, there have been few neurophysiological studies on the insular cortex in primates, in relation to such higher cognitive functions. In the present study, neural activity was recorded from the monkey insular cortex during performance of a delayed-response delayed-reward go/nogo task. In this task, visual stimuli indicating go or nogo responses associated with reward (reward trials) and with no reward (no-reward trials) were presented after eye fixation. In the reward trials, the monkey was required to release a button during presentation of the 2nd visual stimuli after a delay period (delay 1). Then, a juice reward was delivered after another delay (delay 2). The results indicated that the neurons responding in each epoch of the task were topographically localized within the insular cortex, consistent with the previous anatomical studies indicating topographical distributions of afferent inputs from other subcortical and cortical sensory areas. Furthermore, some insular neurons 1) nonspecifically responded to the visual cues and during fixation; 2) responded to the visual cues predicting reward and during the delay period before reward delivery; 3) responded differentially in go/nogo trials during the delay 2; and 4) responded around button manipulation. The observed patterns of insular-neuron responses and the correspondence of their topographical localization to those in previous anatomical studies suggest that the insular cortex is involved in attention- and reward-related functions and might monitor and integrate activities of other brain regions during cognition and behavioral manifestation.
Analysis of Variance↗
Local 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine lesions of rat amygdala: release of punished drinking, unaffected plus-maze behavior and ethanol consumption.
Several serotonergic drugs are effective for anxiety disorders, but underlying mechanisms are unclear, and findings in experimental animals are difficult to reconcile with human data. It has been proposed that differential effects of serotonin within specific anatomical systems may account for these difficulties, and the amygdala has been suggested as one of the structures involved. To examine this hypothesis, the neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine was administered locally in rat amygdala. Within the amygdala, serotonin was depleted by approximately 80%, with other transmitters unaffected, and serotonin transporter labelling was decreased by approximately 85%. Cortical areas near the lesion site were also affected, although to a lesser degree. Other forebrain areas were unaffected. Lesions resulted in a specific anti-conflict effect in a punished drinking test, but did not influence elevated plus-maze behavior (under baseline conditions and after restraint stress), locomotor activity or ethanol intake. These data suggest that the punished drinking test and the elevated plus-maze may activate different components of fear circuitry, and that the serotonergic input to the amygdala specifically participates in fear-related behavioral suppression mediated by this structure.
5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗
Using focus groups to develop a heart disease prevention program for ethnically diverse, low-income women.
Although low-income women have higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than higher-income women, health promotion and disease prevention are often low priorities due to financial, family, and health care constraints. In addition, most low-income women live in environments that tend to support and even promote high risk CVD behaviors. Low-income African-American, Hispanic, and White women constitute one of the largest groups at high risk for CVD but few heart disease prevention programs have effectively reached them. The purpose of this project was to use feedback from focus groups to generate ideas about how to best structure and implement future CVD intervention programs tailored to low-income populations. Seven focus groups were conducted with 51 low-income African-American, Hispanic, and White women from two urban and two agricultural communities in California. The women in the study shared many common experiences and barriers to healthy lifestyles, despite their ethnic diversity. Results of the focus groups showed that women preferred heart disease prevention programs that would address multiple CVD risk factors, emphasize staying healthy for themselves, teach specific skills about how to adopt heart-healthy behaviors, and offer them choices in effecting behavioral change. For health information, they preferred visual formats to written formats. They also expressed a desire to develop knowledge to help them separate health "myths" from health "facts" in order to reduce their misconceptions about CVD. Finally, they stressed that health care policies and programs need to address social and financial barriers that impede the adoption of heart-healthy behaviors.
Adult↗
Take the best or look at the rest? Factors influencing "one-reason" decision making.
Aspects of an experimental environment were manipulated in 3 experiments to examine the parameters under which the "take-the-best" (TTB) heuristic (e.g., G. Gigerenzer & D. G. Goldstein, 1996) operates. Results indicated TTB use to be more prevalent when the cost of information was high, when validities of the cues were known, and when a deterministic environment was used. However, large individual variability in strategy use was observed as well as a significant proportion of behavior inconsistent with TTB, expecially its stopping rule. The results demarcate some of the heuristic's boundary conditions and also question the validity of TTB as a psychologically plausible and pervasive model of behavior.
Adult↗
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) handedness: variability across multiple measures of hand use.
This study examined intertask consistency in handedness across multiple measures of hand use in a sample of 187 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Hand preferences for 2 to 6 measures were collected from the sample, and hand preference scores were derived on the basis of the individual hand preferences for each measure. Seven of 15 possible intratask correlations were significant, with some degree of clustering depending on the motor demands of the tasks. Two overall measures of handedness revealed population-level right-handedness in the chimpanzees, although the degree of bias was reduced for chimpanzees tested on more than 3 measures of hand use. The results are interpreted in the context of several recent studies that proposed theoretical models of handedness in nonhuman primates.
Analysis of Variance↗
Olfactory conditioned partner preference in the female rat.
Paced copulation induces conditioned place preference in female rats. The authors examined whether associating almond-scented males with paced copulation induces conditioned partner preference. The paired group received 4 paced copulations with almond-scented males and 4 nonpaced copulations with unscented males sequentially at 4-day intervals. The unpaired group received the opposite order of association, whereas the randomly paired group received random associations. A 4th group received a single pairing. On the final test, females were placed into an open field with 2 males, 1 scented and 1 unscented. Females in the paired group solicited the scented male more frequently, and most chose the scented male for their 1st ejaculation. Thus, an odor paired with paced copulation elicits conditioned partner preference in female rats.
Analysis of Variance↗
The acute anti-craving effect of acamprosate in alcohol-preferring rats is associated with modulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system.
Acamprosate (Campral) is a drug used clinically for the treatment of alcoholism. In order to examine further the time-course and mechanism of action of acamprosate, the effect of acute and repeated acamprosate administration was examined on (i) operant ethanol self-administration and (ii) voluntary home cage ethanol consumption by alcohol-preferring Fawn-Hooded, iP and Alko Alcohol (AA) rats. Acutely, acamprosate was shown to cause a significant decrease in operant ethanol self-administration by Fawn-Hooded and alcohol-preferring iP rats in part by decreasing the motivational relevance of a specific ethanol cue; however, repeated injection of acamprosate led to tolerance to this effect. Voluntary alcohol consumption in the home cage in Fawn-Hooded and AA rats was also reduced by an acute acamprosate injection; however, again tolerance developed to repeated injections. In a separate experiment, the effect of acamprosate on markers of the dopaminergic system was examined. Interestingly, acute acamprosate was also shown to cause increased dopamine transporter density and decreased dopamine D2-like receptor density within the nucleus accumbens but not in the caudate-putamen, suggesting a link between the decreased motivational salience of the ethanol cue and altered dopaminergic signalling within the nucleus accumbens. With repeated injections of acamprosate, markers of the dopaminergic system returned to steady state levels with a similar temporal profile to the development of tolerance in the behavioural studies. Along with previous studies, our findings indicate that acamprosate modulates the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and may thereby decrease ethanol reinforcement processes; however, these effects undergo tolerance in alcohol-preferring rats and may in part explain the fact why some subjects are non-responders to chronic acamprosate treatment.
Acamprosate↗
High alcohol preferring (HAP) and low alcohol preferring (LAP) rats show altered proopiomelanocortin (POMC) messenger RNA expression in the arcuate nucleus.
AIMS AND METHODS: We have investigated proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene expression in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus comparing high alcohol preference (HAP) rats and low alcohol preference (LAP) rats under basal conditions using in situ hybridization histochemistry. RESULTS: A significantly higher expression of POMC mRNA was observed in HAP rats compared with LAP rats. In contrast, no difference in NPY mRNA expression was observed between the two rat lines. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that an endogenous opioid system may contribute to alcohol preference in HAP/LAP rat lines.
Animals↗
Different effects of stress on alcohol drinking behaviour in male and female mice selectively bred for high alcohol preference.
AIMS: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of stress on alcohol drinking behaviour in male and female mice with a genetic predisposition toward high alcohol preference (HAP2 line). METHODS: Alcohol-naïve male (n = 22) and female (n = 23) HAP2 mice were assigned to a restraint stress or no stress control group. Stress was initially applied for 2 h per day on 10 consecutive days. All mice were then given daily 2 h limited-access to a 10% v/v alcohol solution or water, with food freely available, for 21 days. Over the next 20 days, 2 h restraint stress was applied every other day immediately prior to 2 h access to alcohol and water. On intervening days, all mice received 2 h access to alcohol and water in the absence of stress. Following this phase of the study, the effects of restraint stress on acoustic startle reactivity was assessed in all mice. Finally, all mice were given continuous access to alcohol and water for 8 days. RESULTS: Ten days of prior stress exposure did not significantly alter the acquisition of limited-access alcohol drinking. Subsequent exposures to intermittent restraint stress produced subtle but consistent effects on alcohol intake that differed in males vs females: stress increased alcohol intake in males and decreased alcohol intake in females. Restraint stress did not alter acoustic startle reactivity. Under continuous-access conditions after stress termination, the stress-induced increase in alcohol intake in males became more robust; however, in females, alcohol intake returned to the control group level. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the effects of stress on alcohol drinking in mice with a genetic predisposition toward high alcohol preference depend on sex.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Behavioral determination of odor preference is coded by the oscillation frequency in a collective oscillating network of a terrestrial mollusk.
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Animals↗