Alternative Reward Research Articles

A limited and intermittent access to a high-fat diet modulates the effects of cocaine-induced reinstatement in the conditioned place preference in male and female mice.

Palatable food and drugs of abuse activate common neurobiological pathways and numerous studies suggest that fat consumption increases vulnerability to drug abuse. In addition, preclinical reports show that palatable food may relieve craving for drugs, showing that an ad libitum access to a high-fat diet (HFD) can reduce cocaine-induced reinstatement. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a limited and intermittent exposure to HFD administered during the extinction and reinstatement processes of a cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP). Male and female mice underwent the 10 mg/kg cocaine CPP. From post-conditioning onwards, animals were divided into four groups: SD (standard diet); HFD-MWF with 2-h access to the HFD on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; HFD-24h, with 1-h access every day; and HFD-Ext with 1-h access to the HFD before each extinction session. Our results showed that all HFD administrations blocked reinstatement in males, while only the HFD-MWF was able to inhibit reinstatement in females. In addition, HFD-Ext males needed fewer sessions to extinguish the preference, which suggests that administration of fat before being exposed to the environmental cues is effective to extinguish drug-related memories. HFD did not affect Oprμ gene expression but increased CB1r gene expression in the striatum in HFD-Ext males. These results support that palatable food could act as an alternative reward to cocaine, accelerating extinction and blocking reinstatement, these effects being sex specific.

Training an improved recurrent attention model using an alternative reward function

A recurrent attention model is considered for application to image classification tasks. Modifications to the approach to improve its accuracy are described. Utilization of the reward in the form of negative cross entropy, which increases the informative value of the reinforcement signal, is proposed for neural network training. A deeper architecture of the attention control subnetwork and an asynchronous actor–critic algorithm are also used. Experiments based on the MNIST and CIFAR datasets are conducted, which confirm the effectiveness of the proposed modifications. Experiments using learned classifiers are also conducted, which demonstrate the complexity of the simultaneous attention control and selection of an embedded classifier for analysis of the chosen patch.

Stress & coping strategies among nursing students of India: A systematic review

Background of the review: Stress is a prevalent aspect in daily life and is directly attributed to people in the nursing profession. As this concern is gaining attention as an important area of research and literature especially in the area of nursing education in India, a comprehensive review regarding stress and its coping strategies used by the nursing students is needed. Aim: (a) to identify the level of stress, its sources, and (b) to explore coping methods used by student nurses during nursing education.Methods: The narrative conceptual synthesis method was used to review quantitative studies reporting sources of stress in nursing students and their coping mechanisms. The search also was limited to studies conducted between 2010 and 2020 (10 years). The keywords include ‘‘stress’’, ‘‘coping strategy’’, ‘‘nursing students’’ and ‘‘clinical practice’’ in various combinations. Finally, 33 studies were identified, of which, 12 met the set criteria.Results: Low to moderate level of stress was reported in all the studies and high/severe stress was comparatively low. All of the studies reported the significant stressors as Academic Stressors, Time balance Stressors, Interpersonal Stressors, Intrapersonal Stressors, Family Stressors, and Environmental Stressors. Majority studies reported the use of problem solving strategies, positive thinking/reappraisal of the problem/stressor and seeking relaxation strategies deal with stress. Other general coping strategies were of a mixture which included seeking alternative rewards, seeking social support, talking with friends or spiritual leaders or parents, living close to someone who cares, crying, ignoring the stress, day dreaming, referring to the past similar experiences/stressors to make solution, decision making, eating/dining and time management.Conclusion: During nursing education, students face moderate to high levels of stress from multiple stressors (caring for patients, duties and workloads, unpleasant experiences with staff and faculty, loss of professional ability, and taking exams). Nurse educators may consider the use of formulation and implementation of empirically tested interventions to reduce stress while enhancing coping skills.

Training an improved model of recurrent attention using an alternative reward function

Training an improved model of recurrent attention using an alternative reward function

Reorganization of theta phase-locking in the orbitofrontal cortex drives cocaine choice under the influence

Cortical theta oscillations of neuronal activity are a fundamental mechanism driving goal-directed behavior. We previously identified in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) a neuronal correlate of individual preferences between cocaine use and an alternative nondrug reward (i.e. saccharin). Whether theta oscillations are also associated with choice behavior between a drug and a nondrug reward remains unknown. Here we investigated the temporal structure between single unit activity and theta band oscillations (4–12 Hz) in the OFC of rats choosing between cocaine and saccharin. First, we found that the relative amplitude of theta oscillations is associated with subjective value and preference between two rewards. Second, OFC phase-locked neurons fired on opposite phase of the theta oscillation during saccharin and cocaine rewards, suggesting the existence of two separable neuronal assemblies. Finally, the pharmacological influence of cocaine at the moment of choice altered both theta band power and theta phase-locking in the OFC. That is, this drug influence shifted spike-phase relative to theta cycle and decreased the synchronization of OFC neurons relative to the theta oscillation. Overall, this study indicates that the reorganization of theta phase-locking under the influence of cocaine biases OFC neuronal assemblies in favor of cocaine choice and at the expense of a normally preferred alternative, a neuronal change that may contribute to drug preference in cocaine addiction.

Optimization of non-monetary reward provisions: Evidence from the UK banking sector

This paper evaluates the current state of monetary and non-monetary rewards systems in place in the UK banking sector in an attempt to identify reasons for the preference of monetary rewards over non-monetary rewards. Data was collected from two banks, LLOYDS TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland. The selection of these two banks emanates from their recent bonus crises and the fact that they are both part nationalised, hence the need for a prudent reward system. Questionnaires were used to obtain data and the Evidence Based Reward Management (EBRM) methodology was used to highlight the effectiveness as well as the challenges being faced by the banks with regard to their current monetary reward provisions. Findings reveal that bank employees generally value monetary rewards more than they value non-monetary rewards. Nonetheless, some non-monetary provisions, which virtually do not cost much money, may form the basis for viable alternative reward provisions for bank employees. These findings can help in formulating a more egalitarian reward system in the banking sector.

Understanding Addiction Using Animal Models.

Drug addiction is a neuropsychiatric disorder with grave personal consequences that has an extraordinary global economic impact. Despite decades of research, the options available to treat addiction are often ineffective because our rudimentary understanding of drug-induced pathology in brain circuits and synaptic physiology inhibits the rational design of successful therapies. This understanding will arise first from animal models of addiction where experimentation at the level of circuits and molecular biology is possible. We will review the most common preclinical models of addictive behavior and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. This includes non-contingent models in which animals are passively exposed to rewarding substances, as well as widely used contingent models such as drug self-administration and relapse. For the latter, we elaborate on the different ways of mimicking craving and relapse, which include using acute stress, drug administration or exposure to cues and contexts previously paired with drug self-administration. We further describe paradigms where drug-taking is challenged by alternative rewards, such as appetitive foods or social interaction. In an attempt to better model the individual vulnerability to drug abuse that characterizes human addiction, the field has also established preclinical paradigms in which drug-induced behaviors are ranked by various criteria of drug use in the presence of negative consequences. Separation of more vulnerable animals according to these criteria, along with other innate predispositions including goal- or sign-tracking, sensation-seeking behavior or impulsivity, has established individual genetic susceptibilities to developing drug addiction and relapse vulnerability. We further examine current models of behavioral addictions such as gambling, a disorder included in the DSM-5, and exercise, mentioned in the DSM-5 but not included yet due to insufficient peer-reviewed evidence. Finally, after reviewing the face validity of the aforementioned models, we consider the most common standardized tests used by pharmaceutical companies to assess the addictive potential of a drug during clinical trials.

Perceptions of a video game to promote handwashing habits in foodservice

This study assessed hospitality students’ perceptions of a video game to determine likelihood of acceptance as one of three components of a habit-focused intervention to promote handwashing practices. The game was designed to be played while simultaneously washing hands and involved pressing a foot pedal that caused a character to jump over pipes to progress through a level. Students were shown a video of the game components and how to play it then given a survey based on a variant of the Technology Acceptance Model. Based on a 7-point Likert scale from “1 = Strongly disagree” to “7 = Strongly agree”, mean values for preference, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived usefulness were, respectively, 4.73 ± 1.55, 5.26 ± 1.31, 4.98 ± 1.33, and 4.64 ± 1.56. Students (n = 100) expressed a slightly positive response towards video game use as evident by the survey results; one third of respondents had an average preference of “Agree” or higher for using the video game in foodservice. This study suggests the video game in its current state may have limited effectiveness in promoting handwashing practices. Future work should involve improving the game mechanics or implementing alternative reward mechanisms for promoting handwashing habits in foodservice.

Floral micromorphology and nectar composition of the early evolutionary lineage Utricularia (subgenus Polypompholyx, Lentibulariaceae)

Utricularia (Lentibulariaceae) is a genus comprising around 240 species of herbaceous, carnivorous plants. Utricularia is usually viewed as an insect-pollinated genus, with the exception of a few bird-pollinated species. The bladderworts Utricularia multifida and U. tenella are interesting species because they represent an early evolutionary Utricularia branch and have some unusual morphological characters in their traps and calyx. Thus, our aims were to (i) determine whether the nectar sugar concentrations and composition in U. multifida and U. tenella are similar to those of other Utricularia species from the subgenera Polypompholyx and Utricularia, (ii) compare the nectary structure of U. multifida and U. tenella with those of other Utricularia species, and (iii) determine whether U. multifida and U. tenella use some of their floral trichomes as an alternative food reward for pollinators. We used light microscopy, histochemistry, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy to address those aims. The concentration and composition of nectar sugars were analysed using high-performance liquid chromatography. In all of the examined species, the floral nectary consisted of a spur bearing glandular trichomes. The spur produced and stored the nectar. We detected hexose-dominated (fructose + glucose) nectar in U. multifida and U. tenella as well as in U. violacea. In both U. multifida and U. tenella, there were trichomes that blocked the entrance into the throat and spur. Because these trichomes were rich in chromoplasts and contained lipid droplets, they may form an additional visual attractant. Bearing in mind the phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus, we suggest that an early ancestor of Utricularia had a nectariferous spur flower with a lower lip that formed a wide landing platform for bee pollinators.

Learning to be better at the game: Performance vs. completion contingent reward for game-based learning

The difficulty of designing intrinsically integrated game-based learning systems has led to alternative design strategies based on extrinsic integration. This study extends prior work on extrinsic integration design by examining the effectiveness of alternative reward structures in integrating learning and game. Specifically, a performance-contingent reward is proposed as a new integration mechanism and its effects on learning, motivation, engagement, and system perception are assessed, vis-à-vis a completion-contingent reward. A group of university students (N = 64) were involved in an empirical experiment designed to determine the effectiveness of the new reward structure in the context of English vocabulary learning and arrow-shooting gaming. The results from the experiment show that the proposed reward structure produces a statistically significant increase in the level of learning, motivation, and engagement. The results are highly encouraging for game-based learning research as the proposed approach is easily extendable, with design implications that are widely applicable.

F206. Neural Mechanisms Guiding Choices for Cannabis and Alternative Rewards in Cannabis Smokers

Substance misuse is characterised by persistent choices for drugs over other rewards. Neural mechanisms underpinning drug-biased choice in humans are poorly understood. Using an experimental medicine approach, we investigated subjective value (SV) encoding during choices for cannabis and a natural reward (individuals’ preferred snacks) in regular cannabis smokers. Effects of cues (cannabis, snack, or neutral) were also assessed.

Easy come or easy go? Empirical evidence on switching behaviors in mobile payment applications

Switching behaviors of mobile payment application received scarce attention. This study investigates the key factors influencing the switching behaviors of mobile payment application through the perspective of the push–pull–mooring framework. Privacy concerns, alternative rewards, and inertia are identified as push, pull, and mooring factors, respectively. The model was tested with 3785 valid responses among Alipay users. Inertia was found to attenuate the relationship between alternative rewards and switching behavior. This study sheds new light on the switching behavior of mobile payment application users. Our findings inform service providers to retain existing users as well as attract potential users.

Residency Specialty Choice Trends Over 24 Years

Studies have shown a decrease in the match rate in general medical and primary care-focused specialties among US medical school graduates and an increase in that of subspecialties with “controllable lifestyles.” We evaluated the percentage of Harvard Medical School graduates who matched into high-income controllable lifestyle, low-income controllable lifestyle, and noncontrollable lifestyle specialties from 1994 to 2017. Using linear regression, we found that the percentage of students matching into high-income and low-income controllable lifestyle specialties has increased over time, while those matching into noncontrollable lifestyle specialties – comprised largely of primary care fields – decreased. Such trends may impact the US physician workforce composition over time, with growth of residency positions into fields such as internal medicine exceeding the matriculation of U.S. medical graduates into these positions. We examine whether future policies should focus on incentivizing students to pursue such noncontrollable lifestyle specialties by highlighting controllable lifestyle elements within these fields and emphasizing alternative rewards which may attract candidates to these pursuits. Keywords: RESIDENCY SPECIALTY CHOICE TRENDS, CONTROLLABLE LIFESTYLE, INCOME LEVEL, CAREER CHOICE

Exposure to environmental enrichment attenuates addiction-like behavior and alters molecular effects of heroin self-administration in rats

Environmental factors profoundly affect the addictive potential of drugs of abuse and may also modulate the neuro-anatomical/neuro-chemical impacts of uncontrolled drug use and relapse propensity. This study examined the impact of environmental enrichment on heroin self-administration, addiction-related behaviors, and molecular processes proposed to underlie these behaviors. Male Sprague-Dawley rats in standard and enriched housing conditions intravenously self-administered similar amounts of heroin over 14 days. However, environmental enrichment attenuated progressive ratio, extinction, and reinstatement session responding after 14 days of enforced abstinence. Molecular mechanisms, namely DNA methylation and gene expression, are proposed to underlie abstinence-persistent behaviors. A global reduction in methylation is reported to coincide with addiction, but no differences in total genomic methylation or repeat element methylation were observed in CpG or non-CpG (CH) contexts across the mesolimbic circuitry as assessed by multiple methods including whole genome bisulfite sequencing. Immediate early gene expression associated with drug seeking, taking, and abstinence also were examined. EGR1 and EGR2 were suppressed in mesolimbic regions with heroin-taking and environmental enrichment. Site-specific methylation analysis of EGR1 and EGR2 promoter regions using bisulfite amplicon sequencing (BSAS) revealed hypo-methylation in the EGR2 promoter region and EGR1 intragenic CpG sites with heroin-taking and environmental enrichment that was associated with decreased mRNA expression. Taken together, these findings illuminate the impact of drug taking and environment on the epigenome in a locus and gene-specific manner and highlight the need for positive, alternative rewards in the treatment and prevention of drug addiction.

A molecular mechanism for choosing alcohol over an alternative reward.

Alcohol addiction leads to increased choice of alcohol over healthy rewards. We established an exclusive choice procedure in which ~15% of outbred rats chose alcohol over a high-value reward. These animals displayed addiction-like traits, including high motivation to obtain alcohol and pursuit of this drug despite adverse consequences. Expression of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter GAT-3 was selectively decreased within the amygdala of alcohol-choosing rats, whereas a knockdown of this transcript reversed choice preference of rats that originally chose a sweet solution over alcohol. GAT-3 expression was selectively decreased in the central amygdala of alcohol-dependent people compared to those who died of unrelated causes. Impaired GABA clearance within the amygdala contributes to alcohol addiction, appears to translate between species, and may offer targets for new pharmacotherapies for treating this disorder.

Optogenetic activation of the central amygdala generates addiction-like preference for reward.

Drug and behavioural addictions are characterized by an intense and focused pursuit of a single reward above all others. Pursuit of the addictive reward is often compulsively sought despite adverse consequences and better alternative outcomes. Here, we explored the ability of the central amygdala (CeA) to powerfully bias choice, causing specific rewards to be almost compulsively preferred. Rats were trained on an operant choice task in which they could choose to respond on either of the two levers to receive a sucrose reward, one of which was paired with optogenetic stimulation of the CeA using channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2). Rats developed an almost exclusive preference for the laser-paired reward over the otherwise equal unpaired reward. We found that this preference for stimulation-paired reward persists even when a much larger sucrose reward is offered as an alternative (contingency management) or when this preferred reward is paired with adverse consequences such as progressively larger electric foot shock, time delays or effort requirements. We also report that when challenged with foot shock, a small proportion of these animals (≈20%) retained an exclusive laser-paired reward preference, whereas others began to seek the alternate reward when the shock reached high levels. Lastly, we confirmed that optogenetic CeA stimulation was not independently rewarding if delivered in the absence of a paired sucrose reward. These results suggest a role for the CeA in focusing motivation and desire to excessive levels, generating addiction-like behaviour that persists in the face of more rewarding alternatives and adverse consequences.

On the use of conditional expectation in portfolio selection problems

In this paper, we examine the use of conditional expectation, either to reduce the dimensionality of large-scale portfolio problems or to propose alternative reward–risk performance measures. In particular, we focus on two financial problems. In the first part, we discuss and examine correlation measures (based on a conditional expectation) used to approximate the returns in large-scale portfolio problems. Then, we compare the impact of alternative return approximation methodologies on the ex-post wealth of a classic portfolio strategy. In this context, we show that correlation measures that use the conditional expectation perform better than the classic measures do. Moreover, the correlation measure typically used for returns in the domain of attraction of a stable law works better than the classic Pearson correlation does. In the second part, we propose new performance measures based on a conditional expectation that take into account the heavy tails of the return distributions. Then, we examine portfolio strategies based on optimizing the proposed performance measures. In particular, we compare the ex-post wealth obtained from applying the portfolio strategies, which use alternative performance measures based on a conditional expectation. In doing so, we propose an alternative use of conditional expectation in various portfolio problems.

Doom Guy Comes of Age: Mediating Masculinities in Power Fantasy Video Games

Doom Guy Comes of Age: Mediating Masculinities in Power Fantasy Video Games

F263. Social-Based Voluntary Abstinence Prevents the Emergence of Incubation of Drug Craving

We recently developed a rat model of incubation of drug craving after voluntary abstinence achieved by providing rats with a mutually exclusive choice between methamphetamine and palatable food for several weeks. Here we determined whether this incubation phenomenon would occur after a period of voluntary abstinence where the alternative reward is access to a social peer.

On the money value of peer review

Peer review is commonly recognized among the cornerstones of the scientific publishing system and, less narrowly, of scientific production in general. Although it plays such a fundamental role, peer review is carried out by academics for free. In other words, if a scientific publication generates revenues and profits—as usually happens for the journal articles accessible behind a paywall—reviewers neither participate in sharing the pie nor enjoy the banquet. Nevertheless, some publishers offer rewards for the peer review activity. Here I delve into the Elsevier’s reward scheme and argue that, given how it works, the implicit money value of peer review is likely to be positive for the publisher, but it translates in a real value that is close or equal to zero for the reviewers. Accordingly, I propose an alternative reward scheme that, essentially, reallocate a portion of the two-digit profit rates that main publishers currently achieve.