Search results for "Reward"
showing 10 items of 200 documents
Adolescent pre-exposure to ethanol or MDMA prolongs the conditioned rewarding effects of MDMA
2011
Adolescents often take ethanol (EtOH) in combination with MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine). In the present work we studied the effect of repeated intermittent adolescent pre-exposure to both drugs on the behavioral and neurochemical effects of MDMA in mice. Sixteen days after pre-treatment, the rewarding and reinstating effects of MDMA in the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm were evaluated, along with the levels of biogenic amines, basal motor activity and corticosterone response to different challenges. Pre-exposure to EtOH, MDMA or EtOH+MDMA did not affect the CPP induced by 10mg/kg of MDMA. However, adolescent exposure to EtOH or MDMA increased the duration of the co…
Selective dopaminergic lesions of the ventral tegmental area impair preference for sucrose but not for male sexual pheromones in female mice
2006
The role of the meso-accumbens dopaminergic pathway in reward-related behaviours is the subject of intense investigation. In this regard, here we analyse the effects of specific lesions of dopaminergic cells of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of female mice on two goal-directed behaviours, namely sucrose preference (intake of sucrose solution vs. water) and preference for male sexual pheromones (exploration of male-soiled vs. clean bedding). The results indicate that partial lesions of the VTA that impair neither locomotion nor general exploratory behaviour reduce the preference for sucrose (over a 48-h period) but do not alter the innate attraction that females display for male sexual phe…
Reward Unpredictability inside and outside of a Task Context as a Determinant of the Responses of Tonically Active Neurons in the Monkey Striatum
2001
Tonically active neurons (TANs) in the monkey striatum are involved in detecting motivationally relevant stimuli. We recently provided evidence that the timing of conditioned stimuli strongly influences the responsiveness of TANs, the source of which is likely to be the monkey's previous experience with particular temporal regularities in sequential task events. To extend these findings, we investigated the relationship of TAN responses to a primary liquid reward, the timing of which is more or less predictable to the monkey either outside of a task or during instrumental task performance. Reward predictability was indexed by the timing characteristics of the mouth movements. The responsive…
Refining the dual olfactory hypothesis: Pheromone reward and odour experience
2009
In rodents, sexual advertisement and gender recognition are mostly (if not exclusively) mediated by chemosignals. Specifically, there is ample evidence indicating that female mice are ‘innately’ attracted by male sexual pheromones that have critical non-volatile components and are detected by the vomeronasal organ. These pheromones can only get access to the vomeronasal organ by active pumping mechanisms that require close contact with the source of the stimulus (e.g. urine marks) during chemoinvestigation. We have hypothesised that male sexual pheromones are rewarding to female mice. Indeed, male-soiled bedding can be used as a reinforcer to induce conditioned place preference, provided co…
Role of NMDA and AMPA glutamatergic receptors in the effects of social defeat on the rewarding properties of MDMA in mice
2019
Exposure to social stress alters the response to drugs of abuse of experimental animals. Changes in the glutamatergic system seem to play a role in the effects of social defeat stress on the rewarding properties of cocaine and amphetamine. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the involvement of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors in the effects of social defeat on the conditioned place preference induced by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Our hypothesis was that changes in these receptors could mediate the effects of social defeat on MDMA reward. Young adult male mice were exposed to an episode…
The rewarding effects of ethanol are modulated by binge eating of a high-fat diet during adolescence
2017
Abstract Binge-eating is considered a specific form of overeating characterized by intermittent and high caloric food intake in a short period of time. Epidemiologic studies support a positive relation between the ingestion of fat and ethanol (EtOH), specifically among adolescent subjects. The aim of this work was to clarify the role of the compulsive, limited and intermittent intake of a high-fat food during adolescence on the rewarding effects of EtOH. After binge-eating for 2 h, three days a week from postnatal day (PND) 29, the reinforcing effects of EtOH were tested with EtOH self-administration (SA), conditioned place preference (CPP) and ethanol locomotor sensitization procedures in …
Genetic analysis of reaction time variability: room for improvement?
2013
Background. Increased reaction time variability (RTV) on cognitive tasks requiring a speeded response is characteristic of several psychiatric disorders. In attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the association with RT is strong phenotypically and genetically, yet high RTV is not a stable impairment but shows ADHD-sensitive improvement under certain conditions, such as those with rewards. The state regulation theory proposed that the RTV difference score, which captures change from baseline to a rewarded or fast condition, specifically measures ‘state regulation’. By contrast, the interpretation of RTV baseline (slow, unrewarded) scores is debated. We aimed to investigate directl…
Spared place and object-place learning but limited spatial working memory capacity in rats with selective lesions of the dentate gyrus
2007
We studied the cognitive performance of rats with colchicine-induced lesions of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) on a range of spatial, non-spatial and mixed spatial/procedural tasks. Rats were assigned to three experimental groups receiving large colchicine lesions (7 μg per hippocampus), small colchicine lesions (1.75 μg per hippocampus) or sham lesions. Stereological estimates of cell density indicated that the colchicine treatments induced dose-dependent damage to the DG, while sparing in large part other hippocampal subfields. Remarkably, the behavioural results showed that the colchicine lesions did not affect the performance of rats in an object discrimination task, in an object-pl…
Children's reward responses to picture- and odor-cued food stimuli: a developmental analysis between 6 and 11years.
2013
International audience; The reward system is largely involved in the control of food intake. Whether components of this system (i.e., wanting and liking) change during development remains understudied, as well as how proximate factors (sensory cues, motivational state) modulate reward reactivity across development. We examined the developmental pattern of wanting and liking for sensorily-cued food stimuli in 6-11year old children as a function of the child's motivational state (hunger/satiety), gender, and the nature of foods. School children were exposed before or after their lunch on alternative days to visual and odor stimuli representing different categories of familiar foods. Their tas…
High novelty-seeking predicts greater sensitivity to the conditioned rewarding effects of cocaine
2011
Novelty-seeking in rodents, defined as enhanced specific exploration of novel situations, is considered to predict the response of animals to drugs of abuse and, thus, identify "drug-vulnerable" individuals. The main objective of this work was to determine the capacity of two animal models-the novel object recognition task and the novel environment test-for evaluating to what extent novelty-seeking can predict greater sensitivity to the rewarding properties of cocaine in young adult (PND 56) and adolescent (PND 35) OF1 mice of both sexes. Conditioned place preference, a useful tool for evaluating the sensitivity of individuals to the incentive properties of addictive drugs, was induced with…