title: Effects of acute administration of nicotinic and muscarinic cholinergic agonists and antagonists on performance in different cost-benefit decision making tasks in rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alterations in cost-benefit decision making accompany numerous neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and addiction. Central cholinergic systems have been linked to the etiology and/or treatment of many of these conditions, but little is known about the role of cholinergic signaling in cost-benefit decision making.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal of these experiments was to determine how cholinergic signaling is involved in cost-benefit decision making, using a behavioral pharmacological approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male Long-Evans rats were trained in either "probability discounting" or "delay discounting" tasks, in which rats made discrete-trial choices between a small food reward and a large food reward associated with either varying probabilities of omission or varying delays to delivery, respectively. The effects of acute administration of different doses of nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonists and antagonists were assessed in each task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the probability discounting task, acute nicotine administration (1.0 mg/kg) significantly increased choice of the large risky reward, and control experiments suggested that this was due to robust nicotine-induced impairments in behavioral flexibility. In the delay discounting task, the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine (0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 mg/kg) and atropine (0.3 mg/kg) both significantly increased choice of the small immediate reward. Neither mecamylamine nor oxotremorine produced reliable effects on either of the decision making tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that cholinergic receptors play multiple roles in decision making contexts which include consideration of reward delay or probability. These roles should be considered when targeting these receptors for therapeutic purposes.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors: Ian A
authors: IA
authors: Mendez
authors: Ryan J
authors: RJ
authors: Gilbert
authors: Jennifer L
authors: JL
authors: Bizon
authors: Barry
authors: B
authors: Setlow
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001285:Atropine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011336:Probability; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012201:Reward; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine; D001285:Atropine; D012601:Scopolamine