A test of stress, cues, and re-exposure to large wins as potential reinstaters of suboptimal decision making in rats.

Nina P Connolly,David N Kearns,Jung S Kim,Brendan J Tunstall

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00394

Abstract

The present experiment investigated potential reinstaters of suboptimal economic decision making in rats. Rats were first trained on a version of the rat Gambling Task under conditions designed to promote choice of a suboptimal option that occasionally resulted in large “wins” (four sucrose pellets). In a second phase, preference for this economically suboptimal option was reduced by substantially increasing the probability of punishment when this option was chosen. Then, three events were tested for their ability to reinstate choice of the suboptimal option. A brief period of re-exposure to a high frequency of large wins significantly increased choice of the suboptimal option. The pharmacological stressor yohimbine did not reinstate suboptimal choice, but did increase impulsive action as indexed by premature responding. Presentation of cues previously associated with large wins did not alter behavior. Results suggest reinstaters of suboptimal choice may differ from reinstaters of extinguished drug- and food-seeking behavior.

Highlights

There has been much interest in studying decision making under conditions of uncertainty in animals (de Visser et al, 2011; Paglieri et al, 2014; Cocker and Winstanley, 2015; Zentall, 2015)
Rats had an average of approximately 13 sessions on the free-choice gambling task procedure
The present experiment sought to determine whether the same kinds of events known to reinstate extinguished food- and drugseeking behavior would reinstate economically suboptimal decision making

Summary

Introduction

There has been much interest in studying decision making under conditions of uncertainty in animals (de Visser et al, 2011; Paglieri et al, 2014; Cocker and Winstanley, 2015; Zentall, 2015). A number of new tasks for rats have been developed to study choice between options that vary in terms of economic costs and benefits These include the rat Gambling Task (rGT; van den Bos et al, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014; Rivalan et al, 2009, 2013; Zeeb et al, 2009; Zeeb and Winstanley, 2011, 2013; Koot et al, 2012, 2013, 2014) and the probabilistic delivery task (PDT; Adriani and Laviola, 2006; Adriani et al, 2006, 2009, 2010; Koot et al, 2012; Zoratto et al, 2013, 2014). To the extent that rats’ maladaptive preference for economically suboptimal large reward models gambling-like behavior, identifying

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