An animal model of genetic vulnerability to behavioral disinhibition and responsiveness to reward-related cues: implications for addiction.

ABSTRACT: Rats selectively bred based on high or low reactivity to a novel environment were characterized for other behavioral and neurobiological traits thought to be relevant to addiction vulnerability. The two lines of animals, which differ in their propensity to self-administer drugs, also differ in the value they attribute to cues associated with reward, in impulsive behavior, and in their dopamine system. When a cue was paired with food or cocaine reward bred high-responder rats (bHRs) learned to approach the cue, whereas bred low-responder rats (bLRs) learned to approach the location of food delivery, suggesting that bHRs but not bLRs attributed incentive value to the cue. Moreover, although less impulsive on a measure of 'impulsive choice', bHRs were more impulsive on a measure of 'impulsive

SUBMITTER: Flagel SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2794950 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature