Task 2 Flashcards
- Hardin et al. and Jazbec et al.
- Examined performance on antisaccade task with promised reward in some trials
- Promised reward increased performance more for adolescence then adults
Adolesence & cognitive control
during adolescence, motivational cues of potential reward are particularly salient and can lead to improved performance when provided as a reinforcer, but riskier choices or suboptimal choices when provided as a cue (due to higher inclinations to seek excitement and relatively immature capacities for self-control )
sensitivity to rewards and sensation-seeking behavior are distinct from impulsivity with very different developmental patterns
-Studies suggest that social context, particularly peers, may also serve as a motivational cue and can diminish cognitive control during adolescent
- The degree to which an adolescent’s peer are using substances is directly proportionate to the amount of alcohol or illegal substances that the adolescence will use
Neurobiology of adolescence
— PFC undergoes delayed maturation
— Striatal regions develop sooner
peak in density of dopamine receptors D1 and D2 in the striatum occur early in adolescence
- Prefrontal cortex – known to be important for cognitive control
- Striatum – critical in detecting and learning about novel and rewarding cues in the environment
neurobiological reason for adolesence problem with overruling appetive cues
— Exaggerated ventral striatal (plays role in level of excitement) representation of appetitive cues in the absence of a mature cognitive control response
substances themselves can be reiinforcers
alcohol and other drugs have reinforcing qualities wich themselves can lead to activation of neurons in frontolimbic circuitry rich in dopamine, including the VS
therefore they can intensify an already enhanced VS response wich can again strengthen the reinforcement properties of the drug
— The drugs “hijack” these systems associated with drug incentives like the ventral striatum (down regulating top-down prefrontal control regions)
furthermore adolescents are less susceptible to instant negative effects of drugs (hangover)
What crictical dmage do drugs cause in an adolsencet brain ?
— Repeated exposure =greater hippocampal dependent memory deficit
— Prolonged ethanol intoxication = increased dendritic spine size
— Altered brain structures in alcohol-dependent or -abusing adolescents:
— Smaller frontal and hippocampal volumes
— Altered white matter microstructure and poorer memory
why is adolsence such a critical age for drug abuse?
Neurotoxic effects together with increased sensitivity to the motivational effects of alcohol and evidence of poorer top-down prefrontal control apparent even prior to drug use exposure may set up a long-term course of alcohol and drug abuse well beyond adolescence
Self-control
- Regulate actions
- Involves inhibiting as well as activating an appropriate response to given situation
Energy model of self-regulation
self-regulation is a resource which can run out – this means that if you exert this energy to make yourself do something that you would rather not do, then your capacity to exercise the same kind of self-control for other activities will be temporarily depleted
- People have limited capacities to control own behavior
- When capacity is exhausted, it takes time to replenish
Evidence for Energy model of self-regulation
- Muraven and Shmueli (2006), evidence for energy model
- Study: social drinking, asked social drinkers to sniff either alcohol or water and then perform self-control tasks; those who reported temptation to drink performed on both self-control tasks significantly poorer
- Shows that resisting urge to drink alcohol weakens participants ability to exercise self-control on other, completely unrelated tasks
- Gailliot et al. (2007) – ability to exercise self-control may be linked to blood glucose levels
- Significant reduction in blood glucose levels were measured after self-control tasks
- Additionally, reduced blood glucose levels were linked to poorer performance on those tasks
- This deficit in performance was eliminated after given a sugar drink
- Baumeister (2003) – argued that the development of addictive behavior may involve a gradual reduction in one’s ability to exercise self-control
Therfore recovering drug-dependent person had expended significant mental effort trying to remain abstinent, lapses and relapses could become increasingly likely as a result
Personality states
Personality states – can be thought of as transient characteristics of a person, which do not reflect the way they “normally” are
Personality traits
Personality traits – are those things about a person that vary very little over time and across situations
Trait theory of personality
Trait theory of personality – attempts to identify those core traits that can be used to characterize individuals
Studies have shown good temporal stability, leading to conclusion that “set like plaster”, which do not vary over long periods of time
if this theory is true then the Idea that we might be in some sense predisposed to developing dependence suggest that factors outside our own control guide behavior
Cloninger’s (1987) Tri-dimensional theory of addictive behavior
identified three traits that predispose individuals towards substance dependence:
novelty seeking
harm avoidance
reward dependence
Novelty seeking
Novelty seeking, is the extent to which individuals actively try to engage in new experiences
Harm avoidance
Harm avoidance, the extent to which a person worries and is pessimistic
Reward dependence
Reward dependence, individual’s tendency to learn quickly from rewarding behaviors and the extent to which they will repeat rewarding behaviors in future
Sensation seeking,
Sensation seeking, individuals tend to display behavioral disinhibition and a high susceptibility to boredom, to seek novel experience, and enjoy adventure and thrill
similar to novelty seeking, has been shown to predict engagement in addictive behaviors and can be particular important during the early stages of the development of addiction
major problem with personality theories of addictive behavior
major problem with personality theories of addictive behavior is the lack of clarity on the relationship between traits and behaviour
not always clear what comes first, traits that cause addictive behavior, or addictive behavior that causes changes in core traits
leading to no convincing evidence to support the idea of an addictive personality
rational choice theory of addictive behavior, Becker and murphy (1988)
Becker and murphy (1988) developed rational choice theory of addictive behavior – addictive
behaviors are rational to the extent that they are directed towards maximizing benefits for the individuals who engage in them
- benefit is understood as achieving one’s own goal in the most efficient manner possible
e.g., if your goal is to experience as much pleasure as possible today, with no regard to the consequences of your actions, then it is perfectly reasonable that you might take drugs
Views disorder as one of choice
Choices made by those who develop and maintain addictive behaviors may be guided by faulty decision-making
problems with rational choice theory of addictive behavior
the theory asserts that addictive behavior is necessarily rational behavior -meaning that the behavior is seen always, as a way of achieving current goals and objectives and maximizing benefits to the induvial
argue that increasing the “costs” of addictive goods or substances should reduce consumption and use
however, little evidence that those who have developed significant problems changing their behavior simply because the “cost” change
Incentive-sensitization theory ,Robinson and Berridge (1993)
- Addictive behavior itself is often reported as the result of a compulsion to use, rather than being something the individual feels they are necessary choosing to do
- Based around the idea that the persistent use of drugs leads to alterations in the dopaminergic reward system of the brain
- Systems are involved in attributing incentive salience to environmental cues, meaning an object becomes associated with a positive reward
- Most drugs hijack this system, leading to a disproportionate increase in incentive-sensitization for drug related cues, which further leads to pathological compulsion to want to use the drug
- This compulsion is not necessary conscious and may simply manifest a strong urge
In simple, Use (or abuse) of drugs of dependence can lead to a “loss of control” that is driven unconscious motivations to use the drug
Drug wanting
Drug wanting – attribution of incentive salience to drug stimuli, leading to a string urge to use the drug
Drug liking
Drug liking – involves separate neural pathways in the brain, and refers to the anticipated hedonic effects of drugs
Incentive-sensitization theory problem
Lack of evidence in human research, with the majority of support coming from animal studies
Inhibitory dysregulation theory, Lubman, Yücel, and Pantelis (2004)
- Argues that addictive behavior is actually a problem of compulsive behavior
- Central problem of addictive behavior is conceptualized as being the apparent inability to control one’s pattern of use, and this problem is something that develops over time, starting from initial experimentation
Inhibitory dysregulation theory and the brain
- there is also an impairment in the brain regions that usually allow an individual to override the impulses produced by the reward system
- brain regions such as anterior cingulate (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortices (OFC) are important for exercising inhibitory control
- impairment of these regions would lead to behavior that seems more disinhibited and impulsive
- inhibitory control is particularly important in situations where an individual has to discount future rewards in order to maintain long-term goal
drug dependence may lead to actual impairments in the brain regions which are required to suppress the kinds of impulsive, reward-oriented responses that typify many forms of drug use
Incentive motivational processes
Incentive motivational processes – a cognitive state triggered by stimuli associated with the perception of unconditional stimuli
- Drug-related stimuli are able to elicit classically conditioned responses in drug abusers, both physiologically and subjectively (e.g., “cravings”)
- Neurobiological and cognitive processes behind the classical conditioned relation between drug stimulus and craving
Neurobiology of Attentional Bias (Incentive motivational processes)
- Drug-related stimuli are able to elicit an (classically conditioned) increase in dopamine levels in the brain
- Suggested that dopamine primarily serves to draw a person’s attention to events that predict or signal reward, such as drug-related stimuli
Addictive behavior (Incentive motivation approach )
Addictive behavior – the result when the brain’s approach mechanism is hypersensitized
- Craving can be seen as the accompanied emotional state that is produced by conditioned stimuli that are associated with the reward effects of substances or behavior
Attention can be divided into 2 categories (Incentive motivation approach )
- A non-specific general state of arousal
- Selective attention (= cognitive function that facilitates the processing of relevant stimuli and inhibits the processing of less relevant stimuli; what this paper focuses on)
— Voluntary (active, directed, top-down, controlled; involved when actively searching out stimuli that have personal relevance)
— Involuntary (reactive, passive, bottom-up, automatic; automatically involved when exposed to a novel, surprising, threatening stimuli)
Limited capacity mechanism
the more attention is focused on a secondary task/ stimulus, the less cognitive capacity is available for the primary task
Emotional stroop task
Emotional stroop task – a dual-task paradigm to measure attentional bias
— the voluntary controlled task (color naming) is interrupted by an automatic attentional process, and the subject is distracted by the emotional content of the word (secondary stimulus)
— As a result, reaction times (RTs) of color naming are slower on words with an emotional content
preconscious processing
preconscious processing – the presentation of emotional info can influence behavior unconsciously
Attentional bias for drug cues
— craving itself isn’t responsible for the disruption of the secondary task, but rather the accompanied attentional bias for drug-related stimuli
Neurobiology of Incentive sensitization theory
Addictive drugs enhance the mesolimbic dopamine transmission and thereby attribute incentive salience to the perception and mental representation of events associated with the activation of the system
— This process transforms the perception of stimuli by attributing them with salience
Attentional bias may contribute to addictive behavior in 3 ways:
- Automatic selection process: Enhanced likelihood to detect and become aware of drug cues in the environment
- Attention-related cognitive processes: once drug-cue is detected, it is automatically processed and it’s difficult to draw attention away from the cue
- Limited capacity of attention: the automatic focusing on drug-related cues would results in a subsequent failure in the processing of competitive cues
Relapse prevention according to Incentive sensitization theory
— Most current addiction treatment interventions based on classical conditioning focus on the extinction of craving elicited by exposure to a drug-related stimulus
— The model stresses the need to incorporate the extinction of automatic responses in the extinction process
— But it’s not clear whether these automatic processes can be modified by therapeutic interventions
manipulating dopamine in addicts
— Animal studies show reduce appetitive approach motivation towards rewards and diminished reinforcing effects of the rewards
— Mixed results in human studies
— Indications that manipulating dopamine functioning in humans can both impair and improve selective attention in a U-shaped manner
— Dopamine agonists generally reduce LI
— LI reflects the ability not to attend to irrelevant stimuli
differnce desirese
— Volitive desire I want to, rational and planned
— Appetitive desire I want to, emotional
Appetitive desire
— It has to do with getting pleasure from “forbidden fruits”: Sex, Alcohol/Drugs, and Unhealthy Food
— Attracts attention
— In psychopathology: can be higher (craving) or lowered (apathy/anhedonia)
