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PubMed1996

Conditioned taste aversion is a confound in behavioral studies that report a reduction in the reinforcing effects of drugs.

Pharmacologic agents with a potential to attenuate the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse may have an important role in the treatment of drug addiction. The reduction of drug self-administration and sweet solution intake are two common animal models employed to screen for promising therapeutic agents. When these agents are effective in suppressing the behavior maintained by drugs of abuse, the cause is usually attributed to a neuronal mechanism such as the modification of neurotransmitters that subserve reinforcement. These experiments present data for an alternate interpretation which suggest that some of these agents produce a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) that acts as a confounding variable in the screening of potential therapeutic agents. Both carbamazepine and isradipine were shown to establish a CTA at doses reported to attenuate the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse. It is concluded that CTA represents a potential experimental confound in studies of pharmacologic agents that appear to attenuate the reinforcing properties of drugs. These results suggest that screening for a CTA is necessary in any paradigm that measures the suppression of consummatory behavior in response to pharmacologic intervention.

Analgesics, Non-Narcotic↗
PubMed1990

Evidence for dose-dependent positively and negatively reinforcing effects of the substance P C-terminal analog DIME-C7.

Possible positive reinforcing and aversive effects of intraperitoneally (ip) administered substance P (SP) and its C-terminal heptapeptide analog [pGlu5, MePhe8, Sar9]-SP5-11 (DIME-C7) were investigated in rats. The 'conditioned corral preference and avoidance procedure' was used for assessing positive and negative reinforcement. Behavioural testing was conducted in a circular open field consisting of four uniform quadrants equally preferred by the rats prior to drug treatment. On 3 consecutive days, rats received an ip injection of either SP (37 nmol/kg), DIME-C7 (3.7, 7.4, 37, 185 nmol/kg) or vehicle (0.01 M acetic acid in saline) and were placed immediately into their assigned treatment corral. During the test for conditioned corral preference and avoidance, when provided a choice between the four quadrants, rats treated with SP and with the equimolar dose of DIME-C7 (37 nmol/kg) spent significant more time in the drug-paired corral, indicative of positive reinforcing effects. The doses of 3.7 and 7.4 nmol/kg DIME-C7 did not influence the preference behaviour. The high dose of 185 nmol/kg DIME-C7 led to a significant decrease in time spent in the previously drug-paired corral, suggestive of aversive effects of the treatment. Gross locomotor activity was not influenced by either treatment. These results are discussed in the framework of a structure/activity relationship for the reinforcing properties of peripheraly applied SP.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Acquisition and extinction of continuously and partially reinforced running in rats with lesions of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle.

Local injection of 6-hydroxydopamine was used to selectively destroy the dorsal ascending noradrenergic bundle (DB) in rats. Two lesion procedures were used, differing in the extent of depletion of forebrain noradrenaline they produced (greater than 90% or 77%). In Experiments 1-3 the rats were run in a straight alley for food reward on continuous (CR) or partial (PR) reinforcement schedules. The smaller lesion reduced and the larger lesion eliminated the partial reinforcement acquisition effect (i.e. the faster start and run speeds produced by PR during training) and the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE, i.e. the greater resistance to extinction produced by PR training); these changes were due to altered performance only in the PR condition. Abolition of the PREE by the larger DB lesion occurred with 50 acquisition trials, but with 100 trials the lesion had no effect. In Experiment 4 rats were run in a double runway with food reward on CR in the second goal box, and on CR, PR or without reinforcement in the first. The larger lesion again eliminated the PREE in the first runway, but did not block the frustration effect in the second runway (i.e. the faster speeds observed in the PR condition after non-reward than after reward in the first goal box). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that DB lesions alter behavioural responses to signals of non-reward, but not to non-reward itself. They cannot be predicted from two other hypotheses: that the DB mediates responses to reward or that it subserves selective attention. Since septal and hippocampal, but not amygdalar, lesions have been reported to produced similar behavioural changes, it is proposed that the critical DB projection for the effects observed in these experiments is to the septo-hippocampal system.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Neural substrates of opiate reinforcement.

A major component of opiate reward is derived from a drug action in the ventral tegmental area: (a) rats quickly learn to self-administer morphine directly into the ventral tegmentum, (b) intracranial self-administration into other brain sites is not quickly learned, and (c) narcotic antagonist microinjections into the ventral tegmentum attenuate reward from intravenous heroin infusions. At least one component of opiate reward is dependent on a dopaminergic system: (a) electrophysiological and neurochemical indices suggest that opiates activate ventral tegmental dopaminergic neurons, (b) ventral tegmental opiate infusions are behaviorally activating producing contralateral rotation that is blocked by neuroleptics, (c) reward from heroin is blocked by neuroleptics, and (d) reward from heroin is attenuated by dopamine-depleting lesions of the ventral tegmental system. Brain sites involved in the production of physical dependence on opiates are anatomically distinct from those initiating the acutely rewarding action of opiates. It is theoretically viable that opiates derive their reinforcing impact from a combination of positive and negative reinforcement processes: (a) the neural substrate for the positive reinforcing action probably involves a ventral tegmental dopamine system important in appetitive motivation, and (b) the neural substrate for the negative reinforcing action may involve a periventricular gray system that is independent of the system which mediates the acutely rewarding property of opiates.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Effects of frontalis EMG feedback and reinforcement on frontalis EMG level.

This experiment employed a between-subjects design (N = 40) to investigate the effects of feedback and reinforcement on the lowering of frontalis electromyographic (EMG) activity. The feedback and reinforcement manipulations were combined in a 2 x 2 factorial design and each subject underwent one baseline and two training sessions on three consecutive days. The analogue feedback signal was a 55 dB tone whose pitch varied as a function of EMG activity, while the reinforcement consisted of points which were exchangeable for money. The training sessions were each divided into 10 2-min baseline periods and 10 2-min trial periods. The results indicated that although analogue feedback did not result in lowered EMG levels, trial period EMG level was significantly lower than baseline level under conditions of reinforcement. These results pose problems for Budzynski and Stoyva's (1972) views concerning the therapeutic usefulness of frontalis EMG feedback training.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Relationship of pain impact and significant other reinforcement of pain behaviors: the mediating role of gender, marital status and marital satisfaction.

The operant perspective of chronic pain emphasizes the important role of reinforcement contingencies in the maintenance of pain behaviors and the experience of pain. Patients' 'significant others' are viewed as primary reinforcing agents. The relationship between pain intensity, interference, and responses by significant others in maritally distressed, maritally satisfied, and unmarried samples of male and female pain patients and their significant others was examined in this study. Results revealed that only for married male patients significant other responses explained significant proportions of the variance in the impact of pain. Significant other responses failed to explain significant proportions of the variance for male patients living with non-married significant others. By way of contrast, for female patients pain impact and reinforcement variables were less highly associated in the married as compared to the unmarried patients. For both males and females, there were significantly higher correlations between significant other responses and pain impact levels for the maritally satisfied patients. These results provide qualified support for the operant formulation of the importance of reinforcement of pain behaviors by significant others, however, these responses appear to be dependent upon gender, marital status, and marital satisfaction. Thus, clinicians need to give greater attention to these variables when designing treatment plans.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Aspiration lesions of rat ventral hippocampus disinhibit responding in conditioned suppression or extinction, but spare latent inhibition and the partial reinforcement extinction effect.

Latent inhibition refers to a decrement in learning about a stimulus as a result of its prior non-reinforced presentation. There is evidence that lesions of nucleus accumbens and conventional hippocampal lesions both disrupt the development of latent inhibition. The partial reinforcement extinction effect reflects the observation that resistance to extinction is normally greater in animals that have been rewarded on a 50% random proportion of acquisition trials than in those rewarded on every trial. Conventional hippocampal lesions, excitotoxic lesions of hippocampus plus subiculum, or conventional lesions of nucleus accumbens abolish this effect. The present experiments examined the possibility that a projection originating in the ventral [temporal in the nomenclature proposed by Blackstad: (1956) J. comp. Neurol. 105, 417-537] subiculum and terminating in nucleus accumbens underlies the normal development of latent inhibition and the partial reinforcement extinction effect, by evaluating the performance on these two behaviours of rats with aspiration lesions in the ventral hippocampal region. There was equally clear evidence of latent inhibition and of a partial reinforcement extinction effect in controls and in rats with ventral hippocampal damage. However, superimposed on this, the hippocampal lesion induced a loss of behavioural inhibition in both paradigms. Subsequent anatomical analyses indicated that cell bodies in nearby retrohippocampal cortex had maintained intact projections to nucleus accumbens. We suggest that these extra-hippocampal projections may underlie the ability to learn to ignore irrelevant stimuli.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1994

Outflow from the nucleus accumbens to the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus: a dissociation between locomotor activity and the acquisition of responding for conditioned reinforcement stimulated by d-amphetamine.

Output of neuronal information from the nucleus accumbens to the ventral pallidum is known to be a critical pathway in the expression of locomotion and incentive-related behaviour. Some signals from this structure are relayed forward through the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus to the medial prefrontal cortex, but the other major pathway from this site is a descending innervation to the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. Information carried by these descending neurons has been linked with both the output of locomotor activity and incentive-related information. Previous studies carried out in this laboratory have shown no changes in locomotor activity--either spontaneous or in response to systemic administration of d-amphetamine or apomorphine--in rats with excitotoxic lesions of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. The present experiments compare the effects of ibotenate lesions of this nucleus in tests of locomotor activity or the acquisition of responding with conditioned reinforcement, following injections of d-amphetamine directly into the nucleus accumbens. In general agreement with previous results, ibotenate lesions of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus did not alter locomotion stimulated directly from the nucleus accumbens. However, comparable lesions in a group of trained rats produced an array of deficits in the conditioned reinforcement paradigm. Most notably, these rats directed their attention almost entirely towards pressing the levers (practically ignoring the food-hopper panel), but did not appear to be able to discriminate between them, while controls focused almost all their efforts on pressing the reinforcing lever (virtually ignoring the non-reinforcing lever) and the food-hopper panel. These results indicate that pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus lesions disrupt an element of reward-related responding, but do not affect the production of locomotor activity. This highlights the unlikely existence of specific "locomotion-inducing" centres in the mesencephalon and implicates the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus in the formation of stimulus-reward associations. These data are discussed with respect to a role for the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus in response selection.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Sensation seeking, reinforcement, and student drug use.

College student volunteers completed the Sensation Seeking Scale, a drug use survey, and provided demographic information. Subjects were also asked to generate a list of the events that they found most reinforcing (Reinforcer List). Drug use was positively related to scores on all subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale. Although neither drug use nor sensation seeking scores were related to the total number of items generated on the Reinforcer List, drug users did generate a higher percentage of items rated as high sensation producing items, and percent high sensation reinforcers was correlated with scores on the Sensation Seeking Scale. These results illustrate the importance of the sensation seeking motive as a correlate of student drug use.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Contingent reinforcement for reduced breath carbon monoxide levels: target-specific effects on cigarette smoking.

This study determined the effects on smoking behavior of providing contingent reinforcement for nonsmoking versus reduced smoking afternoon breath carbon monoxide (CO) target levels. Twenty-eight hired chronic smoker volunteers were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions during a 10-day intervention: (a) 8 ppm target CO, $5 per day incentive (n = 11); (b) 16 ppm target CO, $4 per day incentive (n = 8); or (c) 8 ppm target CO, no incentive (n = 9). Both payment groups showed significantly lower CO levels and greater amounts of daytime smoking reduction than the no-pay group. A specific effect of CO target was also seen; 45% of subjects in the 8 ppm group compared with 0% of subjects in the 16 ppm target and no-pay groups produced average afternoon CO levels of 8.5 ppm or lower during the intervention. Average levels of CO and smoking reduction did not differ for the two paid groups, however, because some subjects in the 8 ppm group failed to reduce CO sufficiently to contact the reinforcer. Contingent reinforcement based on expired air CO levels can exercise powerful and precise (target-specific) control over smoking behavior, but there may be individual differences in ability to meet reinforcement contingencies if difficult targets are introduced abruptly.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of mastery criteria and contingent reinforcement for family-based child weight control.

This study tested the effects of mastery criteria and contingent reinforcement in a family-based behavioral weight control program for obese children and their parents over two years. Families with obese children were randomized to one of two groups. The experimental group was targeted and reinforced for mastery of diet, exercise, weight loss, and parenting skills. The control group was taught behavior-change strategies and provided noncontingent reinforcement at a pace yoked to the experimental group. Both groups received the same behavioral family-based educational components over 6 months of weekly meetings and six monthly follow-up meetings. Results showed significantly better relative weight change at 6 months and 1 year for children in the experimental compared to the control group, but these effects were not maintained at 2 years. These results suggest the introduction of mastery criteria and contingent reinforcement for mastery can improve outcome during treatment in behavioral treatments for childhood obesity.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1983

Reinforcements from the first drug experience can predict later drug habits and/or addiction: results with coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, barbiturates, minor and major tranquilizers, stimulants, marijuana, hallucinogens, heroin, opiates and cocaine.

The relationship between the reinforcing quality of the first drug experiences and eventual habits for a variety of drugs was studied in 42 male drug abusers who were predominantly opiate addicts. These subjects volunteered for drug studies carried out by the Addiction Research Center. The degree of reinforcement they derived from their first drug experience was related to their subsequent habit. This was true for alcohol, barbiturates, minor tranquilizers, cocaine, stimulants, marijuana, glue or solvents, hallucinogens, opiates other than heroin and heroin. Positive but non-significant correlations were found for coffee and major tranquilizers. The correlation for cigarettes was contrary to expectations. Of the components to the index of reinforcement, degree of liking of a drug on the first occasion was most related to the subsequent habit. The greatest initial reinforcement scores were found for heroin, cocaine and opiates other than heroin. drugs which were not well liked on the first occasion included major tranquilizers, cigarettes, coffee, and glue.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Stereotypic behavior of mentally retarded adults adjunctive to a positive reinforcement schedule.

Stereotypic behavior is one of the more common disturbed behaviors displayed by people who are developmentally disabled. This study evaluated the indirect effects on stereotypic frequency when the value of a concurrent fixed-interval reinforcement schedule for adaptive behavior was varied. Three profoundly mentally retarded adults performed a simple adaptive task reinforced under a fixed-interval schedule. The reinforcement schedule value was varied from fixed-interval 15 to 90, and 180 seconds after schedule control under each condition was demonstrated. The dependent measure was the frequency of stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behavior increased in direct relation to the interval length. The theoretical and practical implications of treating stereotypies as an adjunctive behavior partially controlled by the reinforcement frequency for adaptive behaviors are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Differential reinforcement as treatment for behavior disorders: procedural and functional variations.

For many years, differential reinforcement has been a prevalent and preferred treatment procedure for the reduction of behavior disorders. This paper reviews the procedural variations of differential reinforcement and discusses their functional properties. It is proposed that such procedures are more likely to be successful if behavioral function is a primary consideration in prescribing treatments; furthermore, limited success noted in previous research may be due to the arbitrary relationship that often exists between reinforcers and target behaviors when behavioral function is unknown. Despite the promise of a function-based approach to differential reinforcement, several current limitations exist in the identification and manipulation of relevant variables. Thus, further research is required to elucidate the relationship between aberrant behaviors and the variables responsible for maintaining them; otherwise, successful treatment cannot be expected. Several areas for future research are discussed conceptually as extensions of current and past experimentation.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1992

A neural network model of adaptively timed reinforcement learning and hippocampal dynamics.

A neural model is described of how adaptively timed reinforcement learning occurs. The adaptive timing circuit is suggested to exist in the hippocampus, and to involve convergence of dentate granule cells on CA3 pyramidal cells, and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. This circuit forms part of a model neural system for the coordinated control of recognition learning, reinforcement learning, and motor learning, whose properties clarify how an animal can learn to acquire a delayed reward. Behavioral and neural data are summarized in support of each processing stage of the system. The relevant anatomical sites are in thalamus, neocortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala and cerebellum. Cerebellar influences on motor learning are distinguished from hippocampal influences on adaptive timing of reinforcement learning. The model simulates how damage to the hippocampal formation disrupts adaptive timing, eliminates attentional blocking and causes symptoms of medial temporal amnesia. Properties of learned expectations, attentional focussing, memory search and orienting reactions to novel events are used to analyze the blocking and amnesia data. The model also suggests how normal acquisition of subcortical emotional conditioning can occur after cortical ablation, even though extinction of emotional conditioning is retarded by cortical ablation. The model simulates how increasing the duration of an unconditioned stimulus increases the amplitude of emotional conditioning, but does not change adaptive timing; and how an increase in the intensity of a conditioned stimulus 'speeds up the clock', but an increase in the intensity of an unconditioned stimulus does not. Computer simulations of the model fit parametric conditioning data, including a Weber law property and an inverted U property. Both primary and secondary adaptively timed conditionings are simulated, as are data concerning conditioning using multiple interstimulus intervals (ISIs), gradually or abruptly changing ISIs, partial reinforcement and multiple stimuli that lead to time-averaging of responses. Neurobiologically testable predictions are made to facilitate further tests of the model.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Social reinforcement of substance abuse treatment aftercare participation: Impact on outcome.

Although adherence to aftercare therapy in substance abuse treatment is associated with improved outcome, little research has explored the effects of adherence interventions on outcome. We compared 20 graduates of our 28-day intensive treatment program who received a standard aftercare orientation with 20 graduates who received this intervention plus social reinforcement of aftercare group therapy attendance. The social reinforcement group showed less alcohol use than the standard care group at a 6-month follow-up assessment as measured by the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), but not less drug use. Additionally, compared to standard care, the social reinforcement participants were more likely to be abstinent at the 6-month follow up (76% vs. 40%). The groups did not differ on hospital readmission rates over a 12-month follow-up period. Additionally, the social reinforcement group showed better long-term aftercare attendance compared to the standard care group.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Food reinforcement.

The reinforcing value of food, measured by how hard someone is willing to work to obtain food, is influenced by food palatability, food deprivation and food variety, and may be a more powerful determinant of food intake than hedonics or liking. The reinforcing value of food is mediated in part by dopaminergic activity. Genotypes that influence dopamine transport and the density of dopamine D2 receptors interact with food reinforcement to influence eating behavior, and D2 receptor genotypes may influence food reinforcement and weight gain after smoking cessation. Inhibition of dopamine transport increases brain dopamine concentrations, which may influence weight gain after smoking cessation and can reduce energy intake in obese adults.

Dopamine↗
PubMed2005

Habituation contributes to the decline in wheel running within wheel-running reinforcement periods.

Habituation appears to play a role in the decline in wheel running within an interval. Aoyama and McSweeney [Aoyama, K., McSweeney, F.K., 2001. Habituation contributes to within-session changes in free wheel running. J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 76, 289-302] showed that when a novel stimulus was presented during a 30-min interval, wheel-running rates following the stimulus increased to levels approximating those earlier in the interval. The present study sought to assess the role of habituation in the decline in running that occurs over a briefer interval. In two experiments, rats responded on fixed-interval 30-s schedules for the opportunity to run for 45 s. Forty reinforcers were completed in each session. In the first experiment, the brake and chamber lights were repeatedly activated and inactivated after 25 s of a reinforcement interval had elapsed to assess the effect on running within the remaining 20 s. Presentations of the brake/light stimulus occurred during nine randomly determined reinforcement intervals in a session. In the second experiment, a 110 dB tone was emitted after 25 s of the reinforcement interval. In both experiments, presentation of the stimulus produced an immediate decline in running that dissipated over sessions. No increase in running following the stimulus was observed in the first experiment until the stimulus-induced decline dissipated. In the second experiment, increases in running were observed following the tone in the first session as well as when data were averaged over several sessions. In general, the results concur with the assertion that habituation plays a role in the decline in wheel running that occurs within both long and short intervals.

Animals↗