Response-contingent Punishment Research Articles

Punishment-resistant alcohol intake is mediated by the nucleus accumbens shell in female rats.

Alcohol use is widespread acrossmany societies. While most people can control their alcohol use, a vulnerable sub-population develops alcohol use disorder, characterized by continued alcohol use despite negative consequences. We used a rat model of alcohol self-administration despite negative consequences to identify brain activity associated with this addiction-like behaviour. We and others have previously shown that response-contingent punishment of alcohol self-administration with mild footshock reliably identifies two sub-populations. One group substantially decreases alcohol self-administration in the face of punishment (punishment-sensitive, controlled) and another group continues alcohol self-administration despite negative consequences (punishment-resistant, addiction-like behaviour). In this study, we aimed to validate this model in females and identify associated brain regions. We trained Long-Evans outbred rats (n = 96) to self-administer 20% ethanol, and then introduced response-contingent footshock. We found that female rats consumed more alcohol in unpunished and punished sessions compared to male rats. In one group of rats (n = 24, m/f), we identified neuronal activity associated with punishment-resistant alcohol self-administration using the neurobiological marker of activity cFos. We found lower cFos expression in NAcSh associated with punishment-resistant alcohol self-administration. In another group of rats (n = 72, m/f), we used chemogenetic inhibition of NAcSh during punished alcohol self-administration. We found that chemogenetic NAcSh inhibition had no effect on unpunished alcohol self-administration but selectively increased punished alcohol self-administration in punishment-resistant female rats. These results indicate that more female rats develop punishment-resistant alcohol consumption, and that NAcSh hypofunction may underlie this phenotype.

Impaired cognitive control during reward pursuit and punishment avoidance

Two experiments were conducted to examine how cognitive control is modulated by response-contingent reward (Experiment 1) and response-contingent punishment (Experiment 2). The congruency sequence effect (CSE), which is the reduction of the congruency effect after incongruent trials compared to the effect after congruent trials, was analyzed as an index of cognitive control. In both experiments, response speed and accuracy were enhanced by reward or punishment. However, in Experiment 1, the CSE was not evident during anticipation of large reward, whereas a significant CSE was obtained during anticipation of small reward. In contrast, in Experiment 2, the CSE was equivalent regardless of the magnitude of punishment. Moreover, the magnitude of the congruency effect was greater in large punishment than a small one. These results indicate a discrepancy between appetitive and aversive motivations in modulating cognitive control even though both invigorated motor responses. In appetitive motivation, cognitive control is likely to be biased toward a proactive control mode, whereas reactive control is preferable in aversive motivation, where aversiveness also interferes with cognitive processes.

Compulsive methamphetamine taking in the presence of punishment is associated with increased oxytocin expression in the nucleus accumbens of rats

Methamphetamine addiction is mimicked in rats that self-administer the drug. However, these self-administration (SA) models do not include adverse consequences that are necessary to reach a diagnosis of addiction in humans. Herein, we measured genome-wide transcriptional consequences of methamphetamine SA and footshocks in the rat brain. We trained rats to self-administer methamphetamine for 20 days. Thereafter, lever-presses for methamphetamine were punished by mild footshocks for 5 days. Response-contingent punishment significantly reduced methamphetamine taking in some rats (shock-sensitive, SS) but not in others (shock-resistant, SR). Rats also underwent extinction test at one day and 30 days after the last shock session. Rats were euthanized one day after the second extinction test and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and dorsal striatum were collected to measure gene expression with microarray analysis. In the NAc, there were changes in the expression of 13 genes in the SRvsControl and 9 genes in the SRvsSS comparison. In the striatum, there were 9 (6 up, 3 down) affected genes in the SRvsSS comparison. Among the upregulated genes was oxytocin in the NAc and CARTpt in the striatum of SR rats. These observations support a regional role of neuropeptides in the brain after a long withdrawal interval when animals show incubation of methamphetamine craving.

Compulsive methamphetamine taking under punishment is associated with greater cue-induced drug seeking in rats

Methamphetamine (METH) addicts lose control over drug consumption despite suffering multiple adverse medicolegal consequences. To mimic the negative events associated with drug addiction in humans, we recently introduced a rat model of self-administration (SA) with response-contingent punishment on METH intake. These procedures allowed us to distinguish between two addiction-like phenotypes in rats, those that sustained METH taking despite negative consequences (shock-resistant, SR) and rats that significantly reduced their METH intake (shock-sensitive, SS). Here, we further developed our adverse consequence model and examined incubation of METH craving by measuring cue-induced drug seeking in SR and SS rats. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were trained to self-administer METH (0.1mg/kg/injection) or saline intravenously (i.v.) during twenty-two 9-h sessions that consisted of 3 separate 3-h sessions separated by 30min. Subsequently, rats were subjected to incremental footshocks during thirteen additional 9-h METH SA sessions performed in a fashion identical to the training phase. Cue-induced drug craving was then assessed at 2 and 21days after the footshock phase. All rats escalated their intake of METH, with both phenotypes showing similar drug taking patterns during SA training. In addition, rats that continued their METH intake despite negative consequences showed even greater cue-induced drug craving following withdrawal than the rats that reduced METH intake following negative consequences. Taken together, our adverse consequence-based model highlights the possibility of identifying rats by addiction-like phenotypes and subsequent vulnerability to relapse-like behaviors. The use of similar SA models should help in the development of better therapeutic approaches to treat different stages of METH addiction.

Incubation of Methamphetamine and Palatable Food Craving after Punishment-Induced Abstinence

In a rat model of drug craving and relapse, cue-induced drug seeking progressively increases after withdrawal from methamphetamine and other drugs, a phenomenon termed 'incubation of drug craving'. However, current experimental procedures used to study incubation of drug craving do not incorporate negative consequences of drug use, which is a common factor promoting abstinence in humans. Here, we studied whether incubation of methamphetamine craving is observed after suppression of drug seeking by adverse consequences (punishment). We trained rats to self-administer methamphetamine or palatable food for 9 h per day for 14 days; reward delivery was paired with a tone-light cue. Subsequently, for one group within each reward type, 50% of the lever-presses were punished by mild footshock for 9-10 days, whereas for the other group lever-presses were not punished. Shock intensity was gradually increased over time. Next, we assessed cue-induced reward seeking in 1-h extinction sessions on withdrawal days 2 and 21. Response-contingent punishment suppressed extended-access methamphetamine or food self-administration; surprisingly, food-trained rats showed greater resistance to punishment than methamphetamine-trained rats. During the relapse tests, both punished and unpunished methamphetamine- and food-trained rats showed significantly higher cue-induced reward seeking on withdrawal day 21 than on day 2. These results demonstrate that incubation of both methamphetamine and food craving occur after punishment-induced suppression of methamphetamine or palatable food self-administration. Our procedure can be used to investigate mechanisms of relapse to drug and palatable food seeking under conditions that more closely approximate the human condition.

Acetaldehyde as a drug of abuse: insight into AM281 administration on operant-conflict paradigm in rats

Increasing evidence focuses on acetaldehyde (ACD) as the mediator of the rewarding and motivational properties of ethanol. Indeed, ACD stimulates dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and it is self-administered under different conditions. Besides the dopaminergic transmission, the endocannabinoid system has been reported to play an important role in ethanol central effects, modulating primary alcohol rewarding effect, drug-seeking, and relapse behavior. Drug motivational properties are highlighted in operant paradigms which include response-contingent punishment, a behavioral equivalent of compulsive drug use despite adverse consequences. The aim of this study was thus to characterize ACD motivational and rewarding properties employing an operant-conflict paradigm in which rats, trained to lever press in order to get ACD solution (0.9%), undergo extinction, reinstatement and conflict sessions, according to a modified Geller–Seifter procedure. Furthermore, the role played by CB1 receptor system in modulating ACD-induced effects were investigated through the administration of CB1 receptor antagonist, AM281 (1 mg/kg, i.p.) during the extinction-, relapse-, and conflict-experiments. Our results indicate that ACD is able to induce and maintain an operant behavior, a high number of responses during extinction, an increase in the lever presses during the reinstatement phase, and a higher emission of punished responses during the conflict experiments, when compared to controls. The administration of AM281 is able to decrease ACD-seeking behavior during extinction, the number of lever presses during reinstatement and to strongly decrease the punished responses for ACD. Our data strengthen the idea that ACD may be responsible for the central effects of ethanol, and pinpoint at the CB1 system as one of the neural substrates underlying its addictive properties.

Dopamine antagonists produce an age‐dependent increase in the responding of the young chick

In three experiments the effects of dopamine receptor antagonists on response-contingent punishment and autoshape learning of 1- and 4-day-old chicks were determined. In the first two experiments, 1- or 4-day-old chicks (N = 120) were trained to key-peck for heat reward and then injected intraperitoneally (ip) with either haloperidol (1.5, 2.5, or 5.0 mg/kg) or saline (Experiment 1) and with either haloperidol (2.0 mg/kg), sulpiride (50 mg/kg) or saline (Experiment 2) 30 min before a 96-trial response-contingent punishment session. In Experiment 3, 1- and 4-day-old chicks (N = 48) were injected ip with saline or haloperidol (2.0 mg/kg) 30 min prior to a 30-trial autoshape learning session. In both the punishment and appetitive tasks 1-day-old chicks pretreated with either haloperidol (1.5 to 2.5 mg/kg) or sulpiride showed a significant increase in key-peck responding compared with their saline injected controls. In contrast, 4-day-old chicks given either haloperidol (2.0 mg/kg) or sulpiride did not differ significantly from saline treated chicks on the punishment task, and on the autoshape task haloperidol-treated 4-day-old chicks responded on fewer trials than did their saline controls. These results indicate that dopaminergic synaptic transmission in the young chick as measured by dopamine D2 receptor blockers is functionally different at 1 compared with 4 days of age.

Effects of apomorphine and haloperidol on response suppression learning of young chicks.

In four experiments, the effects of augmenting or blocking dopamine receptor activity on response suppression learning of Colburn X Colburn chicks were determined. In each experiment, 4-day-old chicks were trained to key peck for heat reward and then tested for response suppression learning by using either a response-contingent punishment or an extinction-punishment task. Before response suppression testing, different groups of chicks were injected ip with apomorphine (1.0, 2.0, or 4.0 mg/kg) either alone or after pretreatment with haloperidol (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg). Regardless of the response suppression task used, chicks injected with apomorphine had difficulty inhibiting their responding; whereas, chicks injected with haloperidol, either alone or before apomorphine treatment, responded on fewer trials than saline-treated chicks. During extinction testing, 4-day-old chicks given only apomorphine showed the typical suppressive effect of punishment on responding rather than the paradoxical punishment-induced increase in responding found in normal 1-day-old chicks. These results indicate that activation of dopamine receptors retards response suppression learning of the 4-day-old chick, but functional changes in central dopaminergic mechanisms are not primarily responsible for the normal age-dependent improvement in response suppression learning of the young chick.

Age-dependent improvement in passive avoidance learning of the young chick: cholinergic mediation?

Cholinergic mediation of the age-dependent improvement in response suppression of the young chick was studied by determining the performance of 4-day-old chicks, pretreated with scopolamine, during passive avoidance (PA) and extinction testing. In Experiment 1, chicks were trained briefly to key peck for heat reward (prepunishment training), and then tested for PA learning under immediate, 2-sec-delayed, or no shock condition. Half of the chicks in each wing-shock (5 mA, 5 sec) condition received saline injections before prepunishment training and .5 mg/kg scopolamine injections after prepunishment training. The rest of the chicks received .5 mg/kg scopolamine injections both before and after prepunishment training. For chicks in both scopolamine groups, delaying shock onset resulted in significantly less response suppression than immediate response-contingent shock. In Experiment 2, 4-day-old chicks injected with either saline or scopolamine were trained to key peck for heat reward and then tested for resistance to extinction under either response-contingent shock or nonshock conditions. Punishment decreased the number of extinction responses for both saline and scopolamine groups of chicks. Previous studies have shown that normal 1-day-old chicks do not show a significant delay of punishment effect during PA testing and that response-contingent punishment increases the number of their responses during extinction. Hence, the results of the present experiments indicate that the age-dependent improvement in response suppression of the young chick cannot be explained solely by a significant increase in central cholinergic functioning.

Changes in unpunished responding during response-contingent punishment

In two experiments, gerbils that were punished for eating exhibited an increase in only the most probable of several ongoing alternative responses (running) during sessions when eating was suppressed. These results support previously suggested punishment and implicit avoidance rules for predicting the effects of response-contingent punishment in multiple-response baseline procedures. Most subjects also exhibited a decline in unpunished digging responses during punishment sessions. Neither this decline in the digging behavior nor the amount of increase in running behavior supported a quantitative constant proportion rule which predicts that each of the unpunished responses will increase to occupy a constant proportion of the time available to it.

A laboratory comparison of systematic desensitization, flooding, and punishment procedures in the extinction of the human avoidance response

A button press avoidance response was conditioned in four groups of subjects using a photographic slide of a rat as CS and shock as UCS. Extinction was attempted by laboratory analogues of systematic desensitization (S.D.) and implosive therapy (Flooding) in two of the groups, by response contingent punishment (Punishment) in another group and by normal extinction (Extinction) in the fourth group. Both trials to extinction criterion, and Tear or anxiety felt by the subjects were measured. More subjects extinguished in the S.D. and Punishment groups than in the Flooding and Extinction groups and when the stringent extinction criterion in the S.D., condition was allowed for these two groups also required fewer trials to extinguish. The Punishment and Flooding groups experienced more fear during extinction than the S.D. and Extinction groups. Clinical evidence suggesting the efficacy of implosive therapy, when considered in the light of the present inferiority of Flooding to S.D., is thought to be due to the action of some variables extraneous to the learning theory basis of implosion. It is concluded that the application of the learning theory principles of S.D. provide the most effective extinction of avoidance and fear responses.

The Effects of Four-Hour Delay of Punishment under Two Conditions of Verbal Instruction

VERNA, GARY B. The Effects of Four-Hour Delay of Punishment under Two Conditions of Verbal Instruction. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 621-624. The effects of 4-hour delay of punishment (withdrawal of reward) on response inhibition was studied with 24 fourth-grade children. The experimental groups were response-contingent punishment (group 1), 4-hour delayed punishment with minimum verbal instruction regarding the reason for punishment (group 2), and 4-hour delayed punishment with specific verbal instruction regarding the reason for punishment (group 3). Children from group 2 deviated significantly sooner, for a longer time, and more often than children from the other groups. However, no difference between groups 1 and 3 was significant. For each of 3 dependent variables the results were conclusive; a verbal expression of the punishment contingency allows the 10-year-old child to profit from 4-hour delayed punishment as much as immediate punishment, even when the delayed feedback occurs in another setting.

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.

Some relationships between punishment, stuttering, and galvanic skin responses.

The simultaneous effects of response-contingent punishment on stuttering behaviors and the frequency of galvanic skin response (GSR) deflections for 10 subjects were investigated. GSR's and stuttering responses were recorded during base rate, treatment, and extinction conditions. The subjects demonstrated a 50% or greater decrease in stuttering frequency during the treatment condition. Combined data for all subjects indicated that the mean frequency of GSR deflections remained stable or declined across conditions of the study. Analysis of individual data revealed that GSR deflections during treatment as compared with base rate increased for four subjects, remained essentially the same in two subjects, and decreased for four subjects. These results suggest that experimental procedures which result in functional punishment effects on stuttering frequency may not be associated with any predictable pattern on concomitant autonomic arousal.

Treatment of compulsive verbal behavior with response contingent punishment and relaxation

Chronic obsessive and compulsive behavior is a distressing and often crippling disorder which is highly resistant to treatment. The current investigation used the behavioral techniques of punishment and relaxation training to extinguish high frequency obsessive ruminations and verbal behavior in two female patients. Punishment involved an aversive stimulus, consisting of previously taped segments of the patients' high frequency verbal behavior which were played to the patient when she emitted that behavior. Relaxation training was used to minimize any anxiety-producing side effects of the punishment technique and to counter-condition anxiety either cued by or cueing the high frequency behaviors. The patients have during 20-month and 18-month follow-up periods respectively been free of the obsessive behavior and the anxiety previously associated with it.

The effects of response contingent reinforcement and response contingent punishment upon the frequency of stuttered verbal behavior

Twelve adult subjects, 4 in each experimental condition, were exposed to 2 punishment contingencies and 1 punishment and reinforcement combined contingency, under a procedure of stimulus control. Results indicated all 3 conditions to be equally effective in the reduction of stuttering frequency. Spontaneous recovery during stimulus control segments was not observed following any of the three experimental contingencies. Implications for research and therapy are discussed.

Reply to Marshall’s “Response Contingent Punishment”

Reply to Marshall’s “Response Contingent Punishment”

The effects of response contingent punishment upon a defective articulation response.

The effects of response contingent punishment upon a defective articulation response.

Suppression of verbal behavior as a function of delay and schedule of severe punishment

The effects of delay and schedule of punishment upon verbal behavior were investigated. Suppression of antonym responses to a word-association list occurred significantly more rapidly when punishment was immediate rather than delayed (5 sec) and continuous rather than partial (67%). Response suppression appeared to be contingent upon the ability to verbalize the principle of punishment. Termination of punishment resulted in a gradual increase in the number of antonym responses given. However, the rate of increase was independent of the delay and schedule of punishment training used. The fact that the antonym response rate remained significantly below its operant level even after S s had been instructed to remove the shock electrodes suggests that some of the suppressing effects of response-contingent punishment may be relatively persistent.

Effects of Preshock and Additional Punishment on Activity of Hamsters

The hypothesis that preshock would impede the rate of recovery in activity following additional noncontingent punishment and facilitate recovery following response-contingent punishment was tested by subjecting four groups of hamsters to either preshock and noncontingent punishment, no preshock and noncontingent punishment, preshock and response-contingent punishment, or no preshock and response-contingent punishment. Preshock impeded the rate of recovery of activity from noncontingent punishment but failed to facilitate recovery from response-contingent punishment. Results obtained with two additional groups did not reveal any significant effects of preshock in the absence of further punishment. The findings were compared with those previously obtained with rats.