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Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

ABSTRACT: Drug addiction is often associated with impulsivity and altered behavioural responses to both primary and conditioned rewards. Here we investigated whether selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats show differential levels of impulsivity and conditioned behavioural responses to food incentives. P and NP rats were assessed for impulsivity in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), a widely used translational task in humans and other animals, as well as Pavlovian conditioned approach to measure sign- and goal-tracking behaviour. Drug-naïve P and NP rats showed similar levels of impulsivity on the 5-CSRTT, assessed by the number of premature, anticipatory responses, even when the waiting interval to respond was increased. However, unlike NP rats, P rats were faster to enter the food magazine and spent more time in this area. In addition, P rats showed higher levels of goal-tracking responses than NP rats, as measured by the number of magazine nose-pokes during the presentation of a food conditioned stimulus. By contrast, NP showed higher levels of sign-tracking behaviour than P rats. Following a 4-week exposure to intermittent alcohol we confirmed that P rats had a marked preference for, and consumed more alcohol than, NP rats, but were not more impulsive when re-tested in the 5-CSRTT. These findings indicate that high alcohol preferring and drinking P rats are neither intrinsically impulsive nor do they exhibit impulsivity after exposure to alcohol. However, P rats do show increased goal-directed behaviour to food incentives and this may be associated with their strong preference for alcohol.

SUBMITTER: Pena-Oliver Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4476783 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

Peña-Oliver Yolanda Y Giuliano Chiara C Economidou Daina D Goodlett Charles R CR Robbins Trevor W TW Dalley Jeffrey W JW Everitt Barry J BJ

PloS one 20150622 6

Drug addiction is often associated with impulsivity and altered behavioural responses to both primary and conditioned rewards. Here we investigated whether selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats show differential levels of impulsivity and conditioned behavioural responses to food incentives. P and NP rats were assessed for impulsivity in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), a widely used translational task in humans and other animals, as well as ...[more]

PMID: 26098361

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Project description:BackgroundBeyond yielding high blood ethanol (EtOH) concentrations (BECs), binge-drinking models allow examination of drinking patterns which may be associated with EtOH's rewarding effects, including front-loading and consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC), a decrease in intake when only water is available to subjects expecting EtOH. The goals of the current study were to broaden our understanding of these reward-related behaviors during binge EtOH access in high alcohol-preferring (HAP) replicate lines (HAP2 and HAP3) of mice selectively bred to prefer alcohol. We hypothesized that both lines would show evidence of front-loading during binge EtOH access and that we would find a cSNC effect in groups where EtOH was replaced with water, as these results have been shown previously in HAP1 mice.MethodsHAP replicate 2 and replicate 3 female and male mice were given 2 hours of EtOH or water access in the home cage for 15 consecutive days using "drinking in the dark" (DID) procedures. Mice received the same fluid (either 20% unsweetened EtOH or water) for the first 14 days. However, on the 15th day, half of the mice from these 2 groups were provided with the opposite assigned fluid (EtOH groups received water and vice versa). Intake was measured in 1-minute bins using specialized sipper tubes, which allowed within-session analyses of binge-drinking patterns.ResultsEtOH front-loading was observed in both replicates. HAP3 mice displayed front-loading on the first day of EtOH access, whereas front-loading developed following alcohol experience in HAP2 mice, which may suggest differences in initial sensitivity to EtOH reward. Consummatory SNC, which manifests as lower water intake in mice expecting EtOH as compared to mice expecting water, was observed in both replicates.ConclusionsThese findings increase confidence that defined changes in home cage consummatory behavior are driven by the incentive value of EtOH. The presence of cSNC across HAP replicates indicates that this reaction to loss of reward is genetically mediated, which suggests that there is a biological mechanism that might be targeted.

Project description:The goal of this study was to identify candidate genes that may influence alcohol consumption by comparing gene expression in 5 brain regions of alcohol-naïve iP and P.NP rats. Background: Selectively bred P (alcohol preferring) and NP (alcohol non-preferring) rats differ greatly in alcohol preference, in part due to a highly significant QTL on chromosome 4. Reciprocal congenic strains in which the iP chromosome 4 QTL interval was transferred to the iNP background (NP.P) and the iNP chromosome 4 QTL was transferred to the iP background (P.NP) exhibited alcohol consumption scores that correlated with the introgressed interval. The goal of this study was to identify candidate genes that may influence alcohol consumption by comparing gene expression in 5 brain regions of alcohol-naïve iP and P.NP rats. Methods: RNA from the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, caudate putamen, and frontal cortex from each of 8 iP and 8 P.NP rats was labeled and analyzed on Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 microarrays. Expression levels were normalized using robust multi-chip average (RMA), and differential gene expression was measured in individual brain regions and in the average of the five brain regions. Differential gene expression was validated using quantitative real-time PCR. Meta-analysis was applied to compare microarray data from this experiment with data from the reciprocal congenic strains NP.P vs. iNP (Carr et al, 2007). Results: We detected between 72 (nucleus accumbens) and 89 (hippocampus) cis-regulated probe sets within the QTL that significantly differed between the strains in the five brain regions. There was significant overlap among the regions; 157 cis-regulated probe sets were detected in at least one brain region, of which 104 showed differential expression in more than one region. Fewer trans-regulated probe sets were detected, ranging from 7 in the amygdala to 54 in the caudate putamen, and most of these differed in only one region; only 10 of the 85 trans-regulated probe sets differed in more than one region. To increase the power to detect differentially expressed genes, data from the five discrete brain regions of each animal were averaged; in this analysis we detected 141 cis-regulated probe sets and 207 trans-regulated probe sets. Meta-analysis comparing the present results from iP vs. P.NP rats with an earlier experiment that used the reciprocal congenic NP.P vs. iP demonstrated that 74 cis-regulated probe sets were differentially expressed in the same direction and with a consistent magnitude of difference in both experiments. No consistent trans-regulated probe sets were identified. Conclusions: Cis-regulated candidate genes for alcohol consumption that lie within the chromosome 4 QTL were identified and confirmed by meta-analysis with the reciprocal congenic NP.P vs iNP study. These genes are strong candidates for producing the difference in alcohol preference and consumption between the iP and iNP rats. There was little evidence for consistent trans-acting effects. Keywords: comparison of gene expression profiles for strain1 (P rat) vs. strain2 (P.NP rat)

Project description:BACKGROUND:Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and urocortins (UCNs) bind to corticotropin-releasing hormone type 2 receptor (CRF2 receptor ), a Gs protein-coupled receptor that plays an important role in modulation of anxiety and stress responses. The Crhr2 gene maps to a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for alcohol preference on chromosome 4 previously identified in inbred alcohol-preferring (iP) and-nonpreferring (iNP) F2 rats. METHODS:Real-time polymerase chain reaction was utilized to screen for differences in Crhr2 mRNA expression in the central nervous system (CNS) of male iP and iNP rats. DNA sequence analysis was then performed to screen for polymorphism in Crhr2 in order to identify genetic variation, and luciferase reporter assays were then applied to test their functional significance. Next, binding assays were used to determine whether this polymorphism affected CRF2 receptor binding affinity as well as CRF2 receptor density in the CNS. Finally, social interaction and corticosterone levels were measured in the P and NP rats before and after 30-minute restraint stress. RESULTS:Crhr2 mRNA expression studies found lower levels of Crhr2 mRNA in iP rats compared to iNP rats. In addition, DNA sequencing identified polymorphisms in the promoter region, coding region, and 3'-untranslated region between the iP and iNP rats. A 7 bp insertion in the Crhr2 promoter of iP rats altered expression in vitro as measured by reporter assays, and we found that CRF2 receptor density was lower in the amygdala of iP as compared to iNP rats. Male P rats displayed decreased social interaction and significantly higher corticosterone levels directly following 30-minute restraint when compared to male NP rats. CONCLUSIONS:This study identified Crhr2 as a candidate gene of interest underlying the chromosome 4 QTL for alcohol consumption that was previously identified in the P and NP model. Crhr2 promoter polymorphism is associated with reduced mRNA expression in certain brain regions, particularly the amygdala, and lowered the density of CRF2 receptor in the amygdala of iP compared to iNP rats. Together, these differences between the animals may contribute to the drinking disparity as well as the anxiety differences of the P and NP rats.

Dataset Information

Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

Publications

Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

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