title: The role of the agranular insular cortex in anticipation of reward contrast.
abstract: Sixteen male Long-Evans rats were tested on a modified version of Flaherty et al.'s [Flaherty, C. F., Turovsky, J., & Krauss, K. L. (1994). Relative hedonic value modulates anticipatory contrast. Physiology and Behavior, 55, 1047-1054.] anticipatory contrast paradigm to assess memory for the anticipation of reward. Prior to testing each rat received either a control or quinolinic acid induced lesion of the agranular insular cortex. In the home cage, each rat was allowed to drink a water solution containing 2% sucrose for 3 min followed by a water solution containing 32% sucrose for 3 min. Across 10 days of testing, the control rats showed significantly increased anticipatory discriminability as a function of days. In contrast, rats with agranular insular cortex lesions failed to show anticipatory discriminability. The results of a preference task revealed that both groups could perceptually discriminate between a 2% and a 32% sucrose solution. The data suggest that the agranular insular cortex may be involved in the anticipation of reward.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. rpkesner@behsci.utah.edu <rpkesner@behsci.utah.edu>
authors.forename: Raymond P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Kesner
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D012718:Set, Psychology