Individual differences in the attribution of incentive salience to a reward-related cue: influence on cocaine sensitization.
When a discrete cue (a "sign") is presented repeatedly in anticipation of a food reward the cue can become imbued with incentive salience, leading some animals to approach and engage it, a phenomenon known as "sign-tracking" (the animals are sign-trackers; STs). In contrast, other animals do not approach the cue, but upon cue presentation go to the location where food will be delivered (the goal). These animals are known as goal-trackers (GTs). It has been hypothesized that individuals who attribute excessive incentive salience to reward-related cues may be especially vulnerable to develop compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction. We were interested, therefore, in whether individual differences in the propensity to sign-track are associated with differences in responsivity to cocaine. Using an autoshaping procedure in which lever (conditioned stimulus) presentation was immediately followed by the response-independent delivery of a food pellet (unconditioned stimulus), rats were first characterized as STs or GTs and subsequently studied for the acute psychomotor response to cocaine and the propensity for cocaine-induced psychomotor sensitization. We found that GTs were more sensitive than STs to the acute locomotor activating effects of cocaine, but STs showed a greater propensity for psychomotor sensitization upon repeated treatment. These data suggest that individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to a discrete reward-related cue, and to approach and engage it, are associated with susceptibility to a form of cocaine-induced plasticity that may contribute to the development of addiction.
Flagel
Shelly B
SB
Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, The University of Michigan, 205 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. sflagel@umich.edu
Watson
Stanley J
SJ
Akil
Huda
H
Robinson
Terry E
TE
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000378:metabolism; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects; D003463:Cues; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007206:Individuality; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012201:Reward; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; D003042:Cocaine; D004298:Dopamine
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