Complex dynamic processes in sign tracking with an omission contingency (negative automaintenance).

Killeen, Peter R.

doi:10.1037/0097-7403.29.1.49

Cited by 25 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The studies described above are in agreement with a number of others that have shown that sign-tracking is not due to "accidental reinforcement" of the response and that is persists even when it leads to loss of reinforcement (see Gamzu and Williams, 1971;Killeen, 2003;Lajoie and Bindra, 1976;Timberlake and Lucas, 1985). Despite these findings, some researchers have questioned the role of Pavlovian (stimulus-stimulus) processes in sign-tracking behavior and have claimed that such behavior may be due to response reinforcement (e.g., see Farwell and Ayres, 1979;Locurto et al, 1976;Locurto, 1981;Myerson et al, 1979;Sanabria et al, 2006;Wessels, 1974).…”

Section: Sign-trackingsupporting

confidence: 79%

Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-related cues: Implications for addiction

2009

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SummaryDrugs of abuse acquire different degrees of control over thoughts and actions based not only on the effects of drugs themselves, but also on predispositions of the individual. Those individuals who become addicted are unable to shift their thoughts and actions away from drugs and drug-associated stimuli. Thus in addicts, exposure to places or things (cues) that have been previously associated with drug-taking often instigates renewed drug-taking. We and others have postulated that drugassociated cues acquire the ability to maintain and instigate drug-taking behavior in part because they acquire incentive motivational properties through Pavlovian (stimulus-stimulus) learning. In the case of compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction, such cues may be attributed with pathological incentive value ("incentive salience"). For this reason, we have recently begun to explore individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to cues that predict rewards. When discrete cues are associated with the non-contingent delivery of food or drug rewards some animals come to quickly approach and engage the cue even if it is located at a distance from where the reward will be delivered. In these animals the reward-predictive cue itself becomes attractive, eliciting approach towards it, presumably because it is attributed with incentive salience. Animals that develop this type of conditional response are called "sign-trackers". Other animals, "goal-trackers", do not approach the reward-predictive cue, but upon cue presentation they immediately go to the location where food will be delivered (the "goal"). For goal-trackers the reward-predictive cue is not attractive, presumably because it is not attributed with incentive salience. We review here preliminary data suggesting that these individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to cues predictive of reward may confer vulnerability or resistance to compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction. It will be important, therefore, to study how environmental, neurobiological and genetic interactions determine the extent to which individuals attribute incentive value to reward-predictive stimuli.

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Section: Sign-trackingsupporting

confidence: 79%

Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-related cues: Implications for addiction

2009

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“…Spatial contiguity is also known to influence the connection between stimuli (e.g., Rescorla & Cunningham, 1979). Another important and highly related contributor to the touchscreen superiority effect derives likely from an enhancement of sign-tracking behaviors (Hearst & Jenkins, 1974;Killeen, 2003). Rats have frequently been autoshaped to press levers (e.g., Smith, Borgen, Davis, & Pace, 1971), and the direct contact with the visual stimuli in the present task likely activated the same Pavlovian processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the touchscreen permits the animal to respond directly toward the stimulus, rather than by pressing a lever that is spatially separated from the stimulus. As a consequence, learning and responding by animals in general may benefit from increased salience of the stimulusreinforcer relations produced by this type of directed action (e.g., Burns & Domjan, 2000;Hearst & Jenkins, 1974;Killeen, 2003;Leslie, Boakes, Linaza, & Ridgers, 1979;Purdy, Roberts, & Garcia, 1999;Reilly & Grutzmacher, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

Touchscreen-enhanced visual learning in rats

Cook

Geller

Zhang

et al. 2004

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers

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The efficiency of traditional levers and of modern touchscreen technology for training rats on a computerized visual discrimination was studied in a series of observations. When compared with a leverbased discrimination procedure, the use of touchscreens supported the faster development of signal tracking behavior and acquisition of a two-stimulus simultaneous visual discrimination. It did not affect the final level of accuracy. Factors related to spatial proximity of the responses with the stimuli, signtracking, and increased ease of touchscreen motor responses were suggested as possible reasons for the touchscreen training advantage. This increased efficiency allows large numbers of animals to be tested quickly, a necessary requirement for studies involving genetic and physiological interventions.

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“…Similar "misbehavior" has been described in squirrel monkeys, pigs, chickens, turkeys, otters, porpoises, and whales Breland, 1961, 1966). Numerous investigators have now provided rigorous experimental evidence that sign-tracking CR performance is difficult to control or suppress (Williams and Williams, 1969;Hearst and Jenkins, 1974;Atnip, 1977;Schwartz and Gamzu, 1977;Holland, 1979;Davey et al, 1981;Tomie, 1995b;Killeen, 2003; for review, see Locurto, 1981).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral characteristics and neurobiological substrates shared by Pavlovian sign-tracking and drug abuse

Tomie

Grimes

Pohorecky

2008

Brain Research Reviews

153

134

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Drug abuse researchers have noted striking similarities between behaviors elicited by Pavlovian signtracking procedures and prominent symptoms of drug abuse. In Pavlovian sign-tracking procedures, repeated paired presentations of a small object (conditioned stimulus, CS) with a reward (unconditioned stimulus, US) elicits a conditioned response (CR) that typically consists of approaching the CS, contacting the CS, and expressing consummatory responses at the CS. Signtracking CR performance is poorly controlled and exhibits spontaneous recovery and long-term retention, effects that resemble relapse. Sign-tracking resembles psychomotor activation, a syndrome of behavioral responses evoked by addictive drugs, and the effects of sign-tracking on corticosterone levels and activation of dopamine pathways resemble the neurobiological effects of abused drugs. Finally, the neurobiological profile of individuals susceptible to sign-tracking resembles the pathophysiological profile of vulnerability to drug abuse, and vulnerability to sign-tracking predicts vulnerability to impulsive responding and alcohol self-administration. Implications of sign-tracking for models of drug addiction are considered.

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Complex dynamic processes in sign tracking with an omission contingency (negative automaintenance).

Cited by 25 publications

References 42 publications

Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-related cues: Implications for addiction

Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-related cues: Implications for addiction

Touchscreen-enhanced visual learning in rats

Behavioral characteristics and neurobiological substrates shared by Pavlovian sign-tracking and drug abuse

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