Habitual Preference for the Nondrug Reward in a Drug Choice Setting

Vandaele, Youna and Guillem, Karine and Ahmed, Serge H. (2020) Habitual Preference for the Nondrug Reward in a Drug Choice Setting. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 14. ISSN 1662-5153

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Abstract

For adaptive and efficient decision making, it must be possible to select between habitual alternative courses of action. However, research in rodents suggests that, even in the context of simple decision-making, choice behavior remains goal-directed. In contrast, we recently found that during discrete trial choice between cocaine and water, water-restricted rats preferred water and this preference was habitual and inflexible (i.e., resistant to water devaluation by satiation). Here we sought to test the reproducibility and generality of this surprising finding by assessing habitual control of preference for saccharin over cocaine in non-restricted rats. Specifically, after the acquisition of preference for saccharin, saccharin was devalued and concurrent responding for both options was measured under extinction. As expected, rats responded more for saccharin than for cocaine during extinction, but this difference was unaffected by saccharin devaluation. Together with our previous research, this result indicates that preference for nondrug alternatives over cocaine is under habitual control, even under conditions that normally support goal-directed control of choice between nondrug options. The possible reasons for this difference are discussed.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Digital Press > Biological Science
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email support@stmdigipress.com
Date Deposited: 16 Jan 2023 10:27
Last Modified: 02 May 2024 06:02
URI: http://publications.articalerewriter.com/id/eprint/17

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