title: Inactivation of the orbitofrontal cortex reduces irrational choice on a rodent Betting Task.
abstract: Cognitive biases may play a significant role in disorders of decision making such as pathological gambling and addiction. Understanding the neurobiology of these biases could lead to more effective pharmacological and therapeutic treatments for disorders in which aberrant decision making is prominent. The rodent Betting Task (rBT) was designed to measure one commonly observed decision-making heuristic in rodents, namely "escalation of commitment" in which subjects become more risk averse as the stakes increase, even if the odds of success remain constant. In the rodent task, the animal is presented with a choice between two options of equivalent expected value, such that reward on one option is guaranteed while the other has a 50% chance of double the prize or nothing. Past work has shown that a subset of animals (termed wager sensitive) adopt an irrationally risk-averse choice preference in which they shift their choice away from the uncertain option as the bet size grows larger. In the current study, the orbitofrontal (OFC), prelimbic (PrL), and infralimbic cortex (IL) were inactivated to evaluate the contributions made by these regions to choice behavior on the rBT. Inactivation of the OFC (but not the IL or the PrL) selectively ameliorated the risk-averse choice pattern characteristic of wager-sensitive animals. This finding suggests that the OFC may have a relatively unique role in promoting this type of non-normative decision-making under uncertainty, an effect that is potentially related to its role in representing the subjective value of reinforcing outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. Electronic address: michaelbarrus@psych.ubc.ca.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Barrus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138, United States.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hosking
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Cocker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. Electronic address: cwinstanley@psych.ubc.ca.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Winstanley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001418:Baclofen / Q000494:pharmacology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D058786:GABA-B Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D005715:Gambling / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D065726:Limbic Lobe / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009118:Muscimol / Q000494:pharmacology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans
chemical_list: D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists; D058786:GABA-B Receptor Agonists; D009118:Muscimol; D001418:Baclofen
keywords: baclofen-muscimol; decision making; gambling; impulsivity; infralimbic; prelimbic