Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Decision-Making In Rats: Effects Of Drug Abuse, Safa Binte Hossain

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Decision-making is a critical cognitive function, often impaired by substance abuse. Understanding the underlying mechanisms in both human and animal models is essential for developing effective treatments. This thesis aims to study approach-avoid decision-making in rats and focuses on the impacts of oxycodone self-administration and alcohol abuse on approach-avoid decision-making.We hypothesize that oxycodone self-administration will alter decision-making in female rats, revealing sex differences and distinct psychometric functions, alcohol habituation will similarly affect decision-making in male rats. The study involved 23 Long Evans rats (11 males and 12 females) for decision-making behavioral study connecting multiple levels of rewards and costs combinations. …

“A Robust And Simple Catheter Connector Assembly For Long-Term Self-Administration Experiments ”, Mauricio Suarez, Sergios Charntikov, Y. Wendy Huynh, Scott T. Barrett, Rick A. Bevins, Ken T. Wakabayashi

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Intravenous self-administration in rats is used widely to study the reinforcing effects of drugs and serves as the gold standard for assessing their use and misuse potential. One challenge that researchers often encounter when scaling up experiments is balancing the cost, time investment to construct, and robustness of each implanted catheter. These catheters include multiple components such as surgical meshing and a variety of entry ports designed to facilitate the connection of the rat to a catheter port tethering system. Other considerations include maintaining the catheters free of blockage during the extent of the drug self-administration experiment. These large-scale studies …

Nmda Receptor Inhibition On Rodent Optimal Decision-Making In The Diminishing Returns Task, Seth Foust

Research Psychology Theses

There has been growing interest in using N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists as treatments for mood disorders, but there is still much to learn about their cognitive effects. Research shows NMDA receptors can affect decision-making, and the antagonist MK-801 has had varying effects in rodents. Specifically, some have reported impairments in working memory while foraging behaviors remained intact, while others have demonstrated changes in choice behavior related to delay or risk in behavior tasks. We investigated the role of NMDA receptors in the specific paradigm of optimal decision-making to further confirm MK-801’s effects and to explore whether inhibiting NMDA receptors alters …

Preference Reversals In Delay Of Gratification, Jeremy M. Haynes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Intertemporal choices are decisions between outcomes occurring at different times. For example, people may choose to quit smoking cigarettes for the delayed health-related benefits associated with abstention, or they may continue to smoke for the immediate gratification associated with smoking now. Importantly, patterns of intertemporal choices among people are associated with a number of maladaptive behaviors (e.g., cigarette smoking). In the present set of studies, I examine a facet of intertemporal choice: preference reversals. Although there are multiple forms of preference reversal, I focus on those characterized by shifts in preference from a larger-later reward to a smaller-immediate reward after …

Assessing The Impact Of Lipopolysaccharide On Learning And Memory In Rats, Anahat Luthra

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The immune system and the central nervous system (CNS) have a bi-direction relationship, modulating one another.⁴ Proinflammatory cytokines released from CNS immune cells have an impact on cognitive processes such as learning and memory.¹ Liposaccharide (LPS), a cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria, which is used to activate proinflammatory cytokine release has been found to impact learning and memory processes, such as in the anticipatory nausea paradigm (ANP).² Anticipatory nausea and vomiting is that which may occur before a chemotherapy treatment session begins in a patient who has had chemotherapy before. It is caused by triggers like …

Žene Iz Ukrajine: Žrtve Putinovog Rata I Predatora Seks-Industrije, Dona M. Hjuz

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Oxytocin Does Not Mediate Lithium Chloride (Licl)-Induced Non-Social Environmentally Conditioned Disgust Behaviour (Anticipatory Nausea) In Male Rats, Vangel Matic

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Introduction. Anticipatory Nausea (AN) is a form of classical conditioning in which the effects of a nausea-inducing substance, such as lithium chloride (LiCl), become associated with a social or environmental context. In rats, AN can be measured by the frequency of conditioned gaping behaviour, displayed when rats are re-exposed to a context previously associated with LiCl. Oxytocin (OT) may be involved in the mediation of socially conditioned disgust, though its role in mediating non-social environmentally conditioned disgust is unclear. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of OT in mediating environmentally conditioned disgust. It was hypothesized …

Effects Of Acute And Chronic Nicotine Administration On Choice Of Probabilistic Outcomes, Katya A. Nolder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Risky choice can be operationally defined as the choice for a larger, uncertain reinforcer over a smaller, certain reinforcer. Research suggests smokers engage in more risky or maladaptive decisions when compared to nonsmokers. The relation between nicotine and risky choice could benefit from further investigation, since nicotine is the active substance of tobacco products that maintains tobacco addiction. Acute nicotine administration has shown to alter risky choice; however, since the everyday smoker uses nicotine repeatedly, more research on chronic administration is warranted and would allow for assessment of tolerance or sensitization of these effects. The present study investigated effects of …

Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of Cannabidiol Oil In Rats, Rebecca L. Chalme

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the major centrally active phytocannabinoid components of cannabis, and has been approved by the FDA only for the treatment of two rare seizure disorders. However, CBD has been touted as a potential treatment for anxiety in place of more traditional treatments like benzodiazepines. Although there is some evidence of anxiolytic effects of CBD, its suitability as a substitute for benzodiazepines is unknown. This experiment was designed to assess to what extent CBD shares interoceptive discriminative-stimulus properties with the anxiolytic chlordiazepoxide (CDP), a benzodiazepine. In the present experiment, a range of doses (0-333.3 mg/kg) of over-the-counter …

A Translational Investigation Of Reinforced Behavioral Variability: Implications For Promoting Behavioral Variability In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ann Galizio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavioral variability is sometimes adaptive and can be maintained by the delivery of reinforcement. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show restricted and repetitive behaviors. Therefore, interventions to promote behavioral variability in individuals with ASD are needed. The present line of research was designed to inform such interventions by investigating reinforced behavioral variability from basic, applied, and translational perspectives. Each of these laboratory studies involved participants making sequences of well-defined responses, which were compared to previous responses. Responses that meet a variability contingency (i.e., were sufficiently different from previous responses) produced rewards. Studies 1 and 2 were basic experiments, …

Consequences Of In Utero Exposure To Alcohol With A Focus On Behavioral Outcomes, Brittany N. Bamberg

Honors Thesis

In utero exposure to alcohol can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which encompasses a range of developmental disorders. The prevalence of FASD has been estimated to impact approximately 40,000 children in the U.S. each year. These individuals are at a greater risk for cognitive dysfunction, dementia, and seizures. The goal of this study was to determine the influence of in utero exposure to alcohol on cognition and behavior in adolescent and adult rats. Pregnant rats were fed an alcohol diet (3% alcohol) throughout their gestational period or control diet (no alcohol). Pups were weaned and pair-housed within sex …

Different Exercise Tendencies Modulate Behavioral And Molecular Changes To Opioid Or Exercise-Induced Reward, Amanda Titus

Theses

Reward changes were observed in rodents with different exercise tendencies by utilizing the conditioned place preference paradigm. Adult male Wistar rats with distinct phenotypes (low volume runners, high volume runners, and wild-type) were given access to a running wheel or an injection of morphine as a rewarding stimulus. There was no difference observed in the strength of conditioned place preference between the rewarding stimuli. Extinction was significantly more effective in low volume runners than high volume runners and wild-type animals, as was observed in the lower percentage of time spent in their assigned conditioning chamber. These findings suggest that low …

Executive Function Deficit As A Precursor To Memory Impairments In Hapoe4 Transgenic Rats, Kaitlin Mcmanus

Honors Theses

The hApoE4 allele is one of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It underlies amyloid-bdeposits and neurofibrillary tangles, the two hallmarks associated with AD pathology, and is subsequently associated with AD symptomology. Despite its importance, no rat animal studies to date use hApoE4 knock-ins. In addition to this deficit in the field of AD literature, the vast majority of AD studies focus on memory, even though executive function deficits may precede memory impairments in AD, and may be a predictor of AD development. Thus, the present study addressed these gaps in AD research by investigating the behavioral …

Basal Ganglia Involvement In The Playfulness Of Juvenile Rats, Stephen M. Siviy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play is an important part of normal childhood development and can be readily studied in the laboratory rat in the form of rough‐and‐tumble play. Given the robust nature of rough‐and‐tumble play, it has often been assumed that the basal ganglia would have a prominent role in modulating this behavior. Recent work using c‐fos expression as a metabolic marker for neural activity combined with temporary inactivation of relevant corticostriatal regions and pharmacological manipulations of opioid, cannabinoid, and dopamine systems has led to a better understanding of how basal ganglia circuitry may be involved in modulating social play in the juvenile rat. …

Alterations Of Acoustic Features Of 50 Khz Vocalizations By Nicotine And Phencyclidine In Rats, Natashia Swalve, Michele M Mulholland, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Ultrasonic vocalizations are widely used to examine affective states in rats, yet relatively few studies explore the acoustic features of vocalizations, especially in relation to drug exposure, and no studies have explored alterations in acoustic features over time. The goal of this study was to examine nicotine- and phencyclidine-induced alterations of bandwidth, duration, and frequency of 50 kHz vocalizations. The minimum and maximum frequency, bandwidth, and duration of calls were examined after 7 days of daily subcutaneous administration of phencyclidine (2.0 mg/kg) and nicotine (0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg) in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Bandwidth was significantly decreased in rats treated with …

Apopo Annual Report 2019, Apopo

Global CWD Repository

APOPO originated from the idea of its founder Bart Weetjens to trains rats for the detection of landmines. Now, over 20 years later, APOPO deploys rats to find landmines and tuberculosis in many affected countries, and continues innovating to use its African Giant Pouched Rats in the battle against other scourges.

APOPO trains these ‘HeroRATs’ using positive reinforcement – they receive tasty treats when they identify a target scent. HeroRATs are at the core of the organization and it’s reflected in the way they are protected and responsibly raised.

Our Training and Research center is based at the foothills of …

Probability Discounting Of Lewis And Fischer 344 Rats: Strain Comparisons At Baseline And Following Acute Administration Of D-Amphetamine, Jenny E. Ozga

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Risky choice can be defined as choice for a larger, uncertain reinforcer over a smaller, certain reinforcer when choosing the smaller alternative maximizes reinforcement. Risky choice is studied using various procedures in the animal laboratory; one such procedure is called probability discounting. There are many variables that contribute to risky decision-making, including biological and pharmacological determinants. The present study assessed both of these variables by evaluating dose-response effects of d-amphetamine on risky choice of Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. The probability-discounting procedure included discrete-trials choices between one food pellet delivered 100% of the time and three food …

Validation And Optimisation Of A Touchscreen Progressive Ratio Test Of Motivation In Male Rats, Jonathan M. Hailwood, Christopher J. Heath, Trevor W. Robbins, Lisa M. Saksida, Timothy J. Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). Rationale: Across species, effort-related motivation can be assessed by testing behaviour under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement. However, to date, PR tasks for rodents have been available using traditional operant response systems only. Objectives: Touchscreen operant response systems allow the assessment of behaviour in laboratory rodents, using tasks that share high face validity with the computerised assessments used in humans. Here, we sought to optimise a rat touchscreen variant of PR and validate it by assessing the effects of a number of manipulations known to affect PR performance in non-touchscreen paradigms. Methods: Separate groups …

Habit Formation In Active Avoidance, Kelsey J. Burke

Theses and Dissertations

Two studies explored feedback value in avoidance learning using rats. We show that limited, but not extended trained rats were sensitive to feedback devaluation via counterconditioning. Identical effects on motivational transfer were obtained. These results suggest that maladaptive avoidance may be established in a similar way to habits of consumption.

Apopo Annual Report 2018, Apopo

Global CWD Repository

APOPO is a non-profit organization with roots in Belgium. For 20 years we have trained African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis around the world. APOPO trains the ‘HeroRATs’ using positive reinforcement – they receive tasty treats when they identify a target scent. HeroRATs are at the core of the organization and this is reflected in the way we protect them and provide loving care and attention.

The main hub of the organization, the Training and R&D center, is located in Tanzania, where all the HeroRATs are trained before being sent to global operations. This is where all …

Mediodorsal Thalamic Neurons Mirror The Activity Of Medial Prefrontal Neurons Responding To Movement And Reinforcement During A Dynamic Dnmtp Task, Rikki L.A. Miller Phd, Miranda J. Francoeur, Brett M. Gibson, Robert G. Mair

Faculty Publications

The mediodorsal nucleus (MD) interacts with medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to support learning and adaptive decision-making. MD receives driver (layer 5) and modulatory (layer 6) projections from PFC and is the main source of driver thalamic projections to middle cortical layers of PFC. Little is known about the activity of MD neurons and their influence on PFC during decision-making. We recorded MD neurons in rats performing a dynamic delayed nonmatching to position (dDNMTP) task and compared results to a previous study of mPFC with the same task (Onos et al., 2016). Criterion event-related responses were observed for 22% …

Estradiol, Substance P, And The Pi3k-Akt-Mtor Pathway In The Dorsal Horn Of The Spinal Cord During Inflammatory Pain, Zane Ferguson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pain is a critical survival mechanism that signals potential or actual damage, but it can become pathological when it persists beyond the injury. Chronic pain is a major health issue that affects 10-20% of the adult population and is found disproportionately in women. There are numerous, interacting mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. This study used female rats to investigate the impact of estrogens on sensory signaling by substance P, a neuropeptide that contributes to the development of chronic pain, and the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway, an intracellular mechanism of nervous system plasticity.

Apopo Annual Report 2017, Apopo

Global CWD Repository

APOPO is a global nonprofit organization that researches, develops, and implements scent-detection technology to combat global humanitarian issues. APOPO’s detection rats currently detect landmines or tuberculosis in 5 affected countries around the world.

The rats are trained through clicker/reward methods, receiving tasty food treats when they identify explosives or tuberculosis. They are never harmed, because they are too light to actually set off any landmines and are cared for under strict animal welfare guidelines.

APOPO has mine action programmes in Angola, Cambodia, and Mozambique and is preparing operations in Zimbabwe and Colombia. APOPO also detects tuberculosis in Tanzania and Mozambique, …

Dose-Related Sex Differences In The Establishment Of Conditioned Disgust (Anticipatory Nausea), And The Effect Of Peripubertal And Adult Immune System Stimulation With The Endotoxin Lipopolysaccharide (Lps) On Learning And Memory In The Rat, Caylen J. Cloutier

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examined sex differences in the establishment of lithium chloride (LiCl) – induced conditioned disgust behavior (anticipatory nausea) to a distinct context, as well as, the establishment of conditioned place avoidance (CPA) using rodent models. Also examined were potential sex differences in response to treatment with the bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and its effect on learning and memory. In Chapter 2, male and female naïve Long-Evans rats were injected (intraperitoneally; i.p.) with either 200 µg/kg LPS or 0.9% (NaCl), 90 minutes prior to i.p. injections of either 128 mg/kg LiCl or 0.9% NaCl, and immediately placed into a distinctive …

Predicting Human Drug Toxicity And Safety Via Animal Tests: Can Any One Species Predict Drug Toxicity In Any Other, And Do Monkeys Help?, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Animals are still widely used in drug development and safety tests, despite evidence for their lack of predictive value. In this regard, we recently showed, by producing Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive data set of over 3,000 drugs with both animal and human data, that the absence of toxicity in animals provides little or virtually no evidential weight that adverse drug reactions will also be absent in humans. While our analyses suggest that the presence of toxicity in one species may sometimes add evidential weight for risk of toxicity in another, the LRs are extremely inconsistent, varying substantially for …

An Analysis Of The Use Of Animal Models In Predicting Human Toxicology And Drug Safety, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Animal use continues to be central to preclinical drug development, in spite of a lack of its demonstrable validity. The current nadir of new drug approvals and the drying-up of pipelines may be a direct consequence of this. To estimate the evidential weight given by animal data to the probability that a new drug may be toxic to humans, we have calculated Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive data set of 2,366 drugs, for which both animal and human data are available, including tissue-level effects and MedDRA Level 1–4 biomedical observations. This was done for three preclinical species (rat, mouse …

Rat Behavioral Discrimination Of Temporal Cues In Species-Specific Vocalization, Kevin Mathews Tharakan

Honors Scholar Theses

Current behavioral and neurophysiologic studies propose that many animals can detect and discriminate the invariant statistics found in natural vocalization (Geffen et. al., 2011; Rodriguez et al., 2010). However, according to current research the neuronal mechanisms underlying the sound discrimination process is still unclear. While numerous auditory statistics have been manipulated, none has varied the temporal and tonal frequency cues independently in their synthetic call sequences, thus it is still uncertain whether rats rely on temporal cues in the sound envelope for communication.

The aim of this research is to determine whether or not rats rely on temporal cues in …

A Brain Motivated To Play: Insights Into The Neurobiology Of Playfulness, Stephen M. Siviy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play is an important part of normal childhood development and is seen in varied forms among many mammals. While not indispensable to normal development, playful social experiences as juveniles may provide an opportunity to develop flexible behavioural strategies when novel and uncertain situations arise as an adult. To understand the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for play and how the functions of play may relate to these neural substrates, the rat has become the model of choice. Play in the rat is easily quantified, tightly regulated, and can be modulated by genetic factors and postnatal experiences. Brain areas most likely to be …

Apopo Annual Report 2016, Apopo

Global CWD Repository

APOPO is a global non-profit organization registered in Belgium that researches, develops and implements detection rat technology for humanitarian purposes. Detection rats, nicknamed HeroRATs, save lives by detecting landmines and tuberculosis. APOPO is headquartered in Tanzania and clears landmines in Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, and soon in Zimbabwe. APOPO also detects tuberculosis in Tanzania and Mozambique and soon in Ethiopia. APOPO’s research and development center is based in Tanzania.

Predicting Human Drug Toxicity And Safety Via Animal Tests: Can Any One Species Predict Drug Toxicity In Any Other, And Do Monkeys Help?, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Animals are still widely used in drug development and safety tests, despite evidence for their lack of predictive value. In this regard, we recently showed, by producing Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive data set of over 3,000 drugs with both animal and human data, that the absence of toxicity in animals provides little or virtually no evidential weight that adverse drug reactions will also be absent in humans. While our analyses suggest that the presence of toxicity in one species may sometimes add evidential weight for risk of toxicity in another, the LRs are extremely inconsistent, varying substantially for …