Probing the decision-making mechanisms underlying choice between drug and nondrug rewards in rats.

ABSTRACT: Delineating the decision-making mechanisms underlying choice between drug and nondrug rewards remains a challenge. This study adopts an original approach to probe these mechanisms by comparing response latencies during sampling versus choice trials. While lengthening of latencies during choice is predicted in a deliberative choice model (DCM), the race-like response competition mechanism postulated by the Sequential choice model (SCM) predicts a shortening of latencies during choice compared to sampling. Here, we tested these predictions by conducting a retrospective analysis of cocaine-versus-saccharin choice experiments conducted in our laboratory. We found that rats engage deliberative decision-making mechanisms after limited training, but adopt a SCM-like response selection mechanism a

SUBMITTER: Vandaele Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8075577 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature