Abstract
Research on the attribution of incentive salience to drug cues has furthered our understanding of drug self-administration in animals and addiction in humans. The influence of social cues on drug-seeking behavior has garnered attention recently, but few studies have investigated how social cues gain incentive-motivational value. In the present study, a Pavlovian conditioned approach (PCA) procedure was used to identify rats that are more (sign-trackers; STs) or less (goal-trackers; GTs) prone to attribute incentive salience to food reward cues. In Experiment 1, a novel procedure employed social ‘peers’ to compare the tendency of STs and GTs to attribute incentive salience to social reward cues as well as form a social-conditioned place preference. In Experiment 2, social behavior of STs and GTs was compared using social interaction and choice tests. Finally, in Experiment 3, levels of plasma oxytocin were measured in STs and GTs seven days after the last PCA training session, because oxytocin is known to modulate the mesolimbic reward system and social behavior. Compared to GTs, STs attributed more incentive salience to social-related cues and exhibited prosocial behaviors (e.g., social-conditioned place preference, increased social interaction, and social novelty-seeking). No group differences were observed in plasma oxytocin levels. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate individual variation in the attribution of incentive salience to both food- and social-related cues, which has important implications for the pathophysiology of addiction.
Highlights
Research on the attribution of incentive salience to drug cues has furthered our understanding of drug self-administration in animals and addiction in humans
Rats differed on their Pavlovian conditioned approach (PCA) index score (Fig. 2A; effect www.nature.com/scientificreports of Phenotype: F(2,36.52) = 46.86, p = 8.25 × 10−11), and distributions of phenotypes were similar to those that have been previously observed in larger samples (Fig. 2B)[24,25]
We demonstrated that STs display prosocial behaviors while GTs exhibit antisocial behaviors
Summary
Research on the attribution of incentive salience to drug cues has furthered our understanding of drug self-administration in animals and addiction in humans. No group differences were observed in plasma oxytocin levels Taken together, these experiments demonstrate individual variation in the attribution of incentive salience to both food- and social-related cues, which has important implications for the pathophysiology of addiction. In Experiment 1, a novel procedure combining conditioned place and cue preference was used to measure sign-tracking to a social-related cue as well as social context in GTs and STs. In Experiment 2, social interaction and social choice tests were used to measure sociability and social novelty seeking in GTs and STs. in Experiment 3, plasma oxytocin (OXT) levels were measured seven days following PCA training under home-cage conditions in GTs, intermediate-responders (IRs; no bias in sign- and goal-tracking behaviors), and STs, and levels were correlated with PCA behavior. OXT was measured because it modulates DA release in response to social stimuli[22] and regulates the salience of social cues[23]
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