title: Sign-tracking to an appetitive cue predicts incubation of conditioned fear in rats.
abstract: Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction are very different disorders, both are characterized by hyperreactivity to trauma- or drug-related cues, respectively. We investigated whether an appetitive conditioning task, Pavlovian conditioned approach, which predicts vulnerability to reinstatement of cocaine-seeking, also predicts fear incubation, which may be a marker for vulnerability to PTSD. We classified rats based on whether they learned to approach and interact with a food predictive cue (sign-trackers), or, whether upon cue presentation they went to the location of impending food delivery (goal-trackers). Rats were then exposed to extensive Pavlovian tone-shock pairings, which causes the fear response to increase or "incubate" over time. We found that the fear incubation effect was only present in sign-trackers. The behavior of goal-trackers was more consistent with a normal fear response-it was most robust immediately after training and decayed slowly over time. Sign-trackers also had lower levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein in the prefrontal cortex than goal-trackers. These results indicate that, while many factors likely contribute to the disproportionate co-occurrence of PTSD and substance abuse, one such factor may be a core psychological trait that biases some individuals to attribute excessive motivational significance to predictive cues, regardless of the emotional valence of those cues. High levels of BDNF in the prefrontal cortex may be protective against developing excessive emotional and motivational responses to salient cues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Road SPC 5767, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2700, United States; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, 4137 Undergraduate Science Building (USB), 204 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2215, United States. Electronic address: jonmorro@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Morrow
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biopsychology Program, University of Michigan, East Hall, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, United States. Electronic address: Benjamin.Saunders@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, 4137 Undergraduate Science Building (USB), 204 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2215, United States; Department of Psychology, Biopsychology Program, University of Michigan, East Hall, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, United States. Electronic address: maren@tamu.edu.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maren
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, 4137 Undergraduate Science Building (USB), 204 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2215, United States; Department of Psychology, Biopsychology Program, University of Michigan, East Hall, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, United States. Electronic address: ter@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Terry E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
keywords: Addiction; Autoshaping; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Individual differences; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Vulnerability
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