title: Increased impulsive behavior and risk proneness following lentivirus-mediated dopamine transporter over-expression in rats' nucleus accumbens.
abstract: Multiple theories have been proposed for sensation seeking and vulnerability to impulse-control disorders [Zuckerman M, Kuhlman DM (2000) Personality and risk-taking: Common biosocial factors. J Pers 68:999-1029], and many of these rely on a dopamine system deficit. Available animal models reproduce only some behavioral symptoms and seem devoid of construct validity. We used lentivirus tools for over-expressing or silencing the dopamine transporter (DAT) and we evaluated the resulting behavioral profiles in terms of motivation and self-control. Wistar adult rats received stereotaxic inoculation of a lentivirus that allowed localized intra-accumbens delivery of a DAT gene enhancer/silencer, or the green fluorescent protein, GFP. These animals were studied for intolerance to delay, risk proneness and novelty seeking. As expected, controls shifted their demanding from a large reward toward a small one when the delivery of the former was increasingly delayed (or uncertain). Interestingly, in the absence of general locomotor effects, DAT over-expressing rats showed increased impulsivity (i.e. a more marked shift of demanding from the large/delayed toward the small/soon reward), and increased risk proneness (i.e. a less marked shift from the large/uncertain toward the small/sure reward), compared with controls. Rats with enhanced or silenced DAT expression did not show any significant preference for a novel environment. In summary, consistent with literature on comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and pathological gambling, we demonstrate that DAT over-expression in rats' nucleus accumbens leads to impulsive and risk prone phenotype. Thus, a reduced dopaminergic tone following altered accumbal DAT function may subserve a sensation-seeker phenotype and the vulnerability to impulse-control disorders.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Neuroscience Section, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, viale Regina Elena 299, I-00161, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Adriani
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gioiosa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Macrì
authors.forename: J-L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Dreyer
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laviola
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016086:Lentivirus / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000378:metabolism*; D011336:Probability; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins