Test 1 Part 3

Question 1

According to Berridge and Robinson, the S-R hypothesis states that the transition to addiction involves a transition from behaviour originally controlled by ____ guided expectation created through __-____ relationships (the memory of drug pleasure) to AUTOMATIC behaviour consisting of primarily __-___ habits that do not require ____ expectations.

Answer 1

According to Berridge and Robinson, the S-R hypothesis states that the transition to addiction involves a transition from behaviour originally controlled by COGNITIVELY guided expectation created through ACTION-OUTCOME relationships (the memory of drug pleasure) to AUTOMATIC behaviour consisting of primarily STIMULUS-RESPONSE habits that do not require COGNITIVE expectations.

Question 2

According to berridge and robinson, the progression from ACTION to HABIT moves from ___-___ process to ___-__ process via decreased actvity in ____ and ____ striatum, and engagement of the ___ stratium.

Answer 2

according to berridge and rombinson, the progression from ACTION to HABIT moves from A-O process to S-R process via decreased actvity in PFC and Ventral striatum, and engagement of the DORSAL stratium.

Question 3

components of the dorsal striatum

Answer 3

caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus

Question 4

components of the ventral striatum

Answer 4

NAcc, core and shell.

Question 5

Problem with S-R habits

Answer 5

they may explain the rituals addicts display in consuming drugs, but they do not account for the flexible and deliberate behaviours involved in obtaining drugs. Something else must explain the compulsion of drug taking.

Question 6

S-R habits may explain the rituals addicts display in consuming drugs, but they do not account for the flexible and deliberate behaviours involved in obtaining drugs. Something else must explain the compulsion of drug taking. What could this be?

Answer 6

S-S learning: SENSITIZED SALIENCE. Incentive salience is the motivating factor behind behaviour, and focuses less on habit. (SR Habit is more focused on in neural systems theory)

In S-S, the representations of the drug cues (UC) engages in a sensitizational motivational response of incentive salience. This enhanced motivational response is primarily responsible for compulsive drug pursuit in addiction.

Therefore, incentive sensitization theory focuses on how drug cues trigger excessive incentive motivation for drugs, leading to compulsive drug seeking, drug taking, and relapse.

Question 7

Which part of the NAcc is implicated in incentive salience

Answer 7

Shell. Involved in increasing the salience of a UCS (drug cue). The shell is activated only in Drug exposure. It is unresponsive to conditioned stimuli that reliably predicts a drug (ex/ tone).

This suggests that the shell neural circuits may be increasing hypersensitive/ sensitized to specific drug effects and to drug associated stimuli. (via activation by the S/S association)

If this wanting/incentive motivational system of the NAcc Shell becomes sensitized with experience (increased incentive salience), the person can engage behaviours without having conscious desire to do it.

Question 8

3 types of reinstatement. Are these types of reinstatement consistent with hedonic dysregulation theory

Answer 8

1) drug primed reinstatement. Administration of drug leads to increasing drug-seeking behaviour.
- NOT PREDICTED BY HEDONIC DYSREGULATION: NO– you shouldn’t have withdrawal if you were given a drug, yet you still administered the durg.

2) stress induced reinsatement. Administration of an acute stressor leads to drug seeking behaviour. DOES fall into supporting HD. Stress = lowered mood state = relapse to remove negative mood state.

3) Cue induced reinstatement.
Presentation of a conditioned cue (ex/ needles) leads to drug seeking behaviour, even if withdrawal is gone/ the animal is in extinction.
HD? Idk

Question 9

Is wanting or liking more in line with increased incentive slaience??

Answer 9

the sensitized neural systems repsonsible for excessive incentive salience can be dissociated from neural systems that mediate hedonic effects of drugs (liking)
therefore, wanting is characterized by incentive salience. Neural sensitization by drugs increases only wanting

Question 10

What neurobiological characteristics indicate neural sensitization/ increased salience?

Answer 10

In the shell of the Nucleus accumbens, there is an

1) increased branching of dendrites
2) increased length of dendrites
3) increase in dendritic spines

Question 11

what psychomotor characteristics indicate neural sensitization

Answer 11

repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant in a particular context increases activity in that context over sessions. There is more repetitive stereotyped movements, mediated by systems that overlap with those involved in reward.

Question 12

Question: Explain the difference between liking and wanting.

Answer 12

Liking: is a conscious pleasurable experience in which positive hedonic effects are associated with the drug. An individual willingly takes the drug because it is “liked,” (they feel euphoric).

Wanting: is the result of excessive attribution of incentive salience to drug related representations, causing an individual to be motivated to continue taking the drug, even in absence of hedonia. This activation of incentive salience processes results in a willingness to spend more effort in order to get the drug, even with a person not having conscious emotion or desire to take the drug.

Question 13

Question: Explain how progressive ratio research dissociates liking from wanting.

Answer 13

Study: pts were cocaine users and were dependent.
- Some had their DA attenuated with APTD.
- Pts were presented with cocaine cues and were asked to rank how much they “wanted” for cocaine. All pts were given incrementally increasing doses of cocaine.
- Cocaine dose reduced the “wanting’ in APTD pts, relative to the pts whose DA was not depleted, BUT THERE WERE NO CHANGES IN ‘LIKING’ THE COCAINE—BOTH GROUPS LIKED THE COCAINE.
- Therefore, blocking DA only influence “wanting” to use cocaine
o DA THUS PLAYS A ROLE IN MOTIVATIONAL VALUE, and that MOTIVATION IS SEPARATE FROM HEDONIA “LIKING.”

Question 14

Question: How does wanting and liking change during the development of drug addiction?

Answer 14

• “wanting” of the drug can increase with persistent use, while “liking” may decrease (depending on the drug). This discrepancy increases. The incentive motivational system becomes more and more sensitized with repeated drug experience, adding more and more motivation to the drug.
• Implicit behaviours/ unconscious behaviours can activate the incentive motivational system, as well as explicitly (conscious craving). This incentive motivational system (including the NAcc Shell) appears to be DA-mediated and can be activated without the activation of systems that mediate hedonic “liking” effects of the drug.
• Therefore, the incentive motivational system has the potential to be activated without the pleasure structures being activated, resulted in a person “wanting”/being motivated without actually liking the drug.

Question 15

If you block DAT, what do you expect the progressive ratio of cocaine to do?

Answer 15

DAT = DA transporter. Blocking DAT = more DA in the synapse. Since DA is implicarted in wanting because it activates the incentive motivational system, you would most likely be more motivated to obtain cocaine.

therefore, blocking of DAT = higher breakpoint. More willing to work for a dose.

Question 16

Explain a study that confirms that DA does not induce joy

Answer 16

In a study that measures liking, which was assessed by facial expressions to sugar, USUALLY, as you increase sugar, you get increased reactions after feeding.

BUT: in DAT KD mice (more DA in synapse), mice show AVERSIVE repsonses to sucrose. DA does not induce joy.

Question 17

Finding that shows that wanting and liking use dif neural circuitry

Answer 17

when administering DAMGO with sucrose (increases the liking or hedonia of a food), only a small portion of the NAcc lit up. DA in other areas/most of Nacc are thus involved more in intake and motivation

Question 18

____ ____ theory is based on negative reinforcement.

___ ___ theory is based on positive reinforcement.

Answer 18

___ ___ theory is based on positive reinforcement, You’re not taking a drug to offset a negative mood, but youre taking them beacuase durgs have a large motivational value. Incentive salience reflects wanting not liking.

Question 19

Neural systems theory is kind of like incentive sensitization, but rather than focusing on S-S learning and motivational incentive, it focuses on __-__ learning and ___.

Answer 19

Neural systems theory is kind of like incentive sensitization, but rather than focusing on S-S learning and motivational incentive, it focuses on S-R learning and HABITS.

Question 20

accorsing to neural systems theory, there is a shift from ___ striatum and ___ to ____ striatum, causing an overactivity in this havit loop.

Answer 20

there is a shift from VENTRAL striatum and PFC (EXECUTIVE FUNCTION) to DORSAL(HABIT) striatum, causing an overactivity in this habit loop.

Ventral striatum = acquisition of learning
dosral striatum = habit learning.

Question 21

the loss of ___ function is required for intense HABIT LEARNING and maintenance of sensitization through preventing inhibition of downstream targets like VTA.

Answer 21

loss of cortical function

Question 22

Question: Provide two pieces of behavioural evidence that frontal cortical function is disrupted by alcohol use

Answer 22

1) Poor outcomes on delayed discounting tasks. More likely to choose a smaller more immediate reward than larger later reward
2) poor performance on short term memory tasks

Question 23

Question: 1. Briefly, describe the result of a study in humans that links frontal cortical function to decision making (2 points) and the result of a study that demonstrates the effect of alcohol intake on executive function in rats (2 points).

Answer 23

i) Water maze spatial reversal tasks: rats were placed in opaque water so that a platform could not be seen unless they swam and felt it. Rats in both the EtOH category and the control category were able to find the platform initially.When the platform location changed, the controls swam around and found it, whereas the EtOH-consumption rats still tried to locate it in its original location. They were demonstrating preservation—they could not adapt to this new situation
a. They began to demonstrate desperation behavior (finding a way out, clinging to walls)
b. Indicated that etOH potentially damaged their Orbital PFC, and that their executive function was IMPAIRED.

i) Card Sorting Tasks: categorization tasks that requires the person to sort cards according to similarity by color, shape, number etc. They must change their sorting technique throughout when given feedback that their sorting rule was no longer successful.
a. Most people can be flexible in their sorting techniques, but people with OFC/PFC show an inability to change their sorting techniques. They exhibit preservation—they cannot adjust to new demands placed on them. They are inflexible in their techniques.
b. show decreases in their executive function.

Question 24

PKC experiments suggest that instrumental response-outcome learning (press lever to get reward) is happening in the:

Answer 24

NAcc core: storage of instrumental reponse in core.

different kinds of learning involved in substance use disorder are occurring in different parts of the brain.

Tells us that maybe the RESPONSE is being stored here, but the info ABOUT the stimulus is being stored elsewhere (maybe shell?)

Question 25

Pavlovian classical conditioning learning is happening in the:

Answer 25

basal amygdala and central nucleus. If there’s an association between CS and US, then you get activity. Therefore, the amygdala stores info about stimuli.

Question 26

According to Wise, when should you be diagnosing SUD?

Answer 26

Wise believes that addiction happens earlier. The physical dependence results after the substance already became the problem. “addiction occurs when drug taking becomes regular and predictable. In mice, without limitation, rats will compulsively take cocaine until death”

Question 27

According to Koob, when should you be diagnosing SUD?

Answer 27

pretty late. Koob things that addiction happens in 3 stages: 1) binge, 2) neg withdrawal, 3) preoccupation and anticipation. These stages worsen over time and ultimately involve elements of impulsivity and compulsivity, and both + and - reinforcers.

This dark side of addiction becomes very pronounced later, but actually starts right away (just subtle at the start).

Question 28

CRF Action in addiction-related brain strcutures.
The “dark side” of reward/antireward system involves BNST and CeA, whereas incentive salience = VTA and NAcc.
These are controlled a bit by executive function in PFC.

According to hedonic dysregulation, ___ was drivign the negative withdrawal state

Answer 28

CRF was driving the negative withdrawal state.

Question 29

QUESTION: Describe a finding that establishes the relationship between between CRF transmission and glutamate and dopamine release in the ventral tegmental area (VTA)

Answer 29

CRF Is involved in stress-induced instrumental-response reinstatement.

1) CRF Transmission and Glu and DA Release from VTA
- CRF Is involved in stress response.
- Injecting alphaHCRF (CRF antagonist) into the VTA blocked stress-induced response reinstatement (drug seeking for cocaine), after a food shock.
o CRF antagonist also attenuated DA and Glu levels in their reward circuitry of drug-experienced rats. This was only seen in their reward circuitry (ex/ DA and Glu in Sn was not affected)
o Therefore, normally, CRF increases DA and Glu release in cocaine-experienced animals. This relationship between stress (CRF) and rewad (glua nd DA0 only happens after drug experience.

2) - Injecting KynAcid (glutamate receptor blocker) BLOCKS STRESS INDUCED REINSTATEMENT of responding for cocaine.
o Glu release did not decrease in the presence of KynAcid, indiciating that the Glu-releasing neurons did not have many glu receptors. In fact, Glu levels increased in the presence of Kyn.
o DA Decreases, therefore, DA containing neurons do have lots of GLu receptors on them. Therefore, CRF releasing neurons synapse onto Glu neurons of the VTA, which synapse onto DA neurons.
- This is why decrease CRF = Decrease Glu = decrease DA ONLY IN COCAINE EXPERIENCED RATS.

Question 30

QUESTION: How do Everitt and Robbins conceptualize “compulsive” behaviour (2 points)?

Answer 30

Compulsive behvaiour: a stimulus response association, or habit, in which the GOAL of the behavior (ex/ hedonia) is NO LONGER VALUED, and is no longer the driving force for continuing the behavior. The behavior is no longer consciously controlled, and is now habitual.

• Rather, responding or “doing the habit” is governed by a conditioned reinforcer (if presented as a consequence of instrumental responses) or discriminative stimuli.
• SR/HABIT learning may occur in parallel with instrumental action-outcome but, over time and with extended training, SR/Habit dominates behavioural output.