title: Relationship of delay aversion and response inhibition to extinction learning, aggression, and sexual behaviour.
abstract: Impulsivity is an important symptom of many psychiatric disorders, and can be divided into two subtypes: response inhibition deficits and delay aversion. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between delay aversion and response inhibition, both to each other and to locomotion, extinction of conditioned responses, sexual behaviour, and aggressive behaviour. To that end, we quantified the behaviour of 24 rats in several tests. To measure response inhibition, rats were trained in a stop-signal task. In this operant task, rats were rewarded food if they inhibited execution of a response after presentation of an audible stop-signal. Delay aversion was measured in an operant task in which rats made a choice between a small, immediately available reward and a large reward available after a delay. The results showed that delay aversion and response inhibition were independent. Responses during extinction and various measures of aggressive behaviour were positively correlated to delay aversion. The speed of go-trials in the stop-task was correlated to non-aggressive behaviour. We conclude that the role of response inhibition in various behaviours is small, but delay aversion in particular contributes to several other behaviours, such as aggressive behaviour and extinction.
authors.affiliation: Section Psychopharmacology and Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University. Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Van den Bergh
authors.forename: Marjolein
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spronk
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bloemarts
authors.forename: Lucianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Groenink
authors.forename: Berend
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olivier
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oosting
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors