Tedford Stephanie E, Holtz Nathan A, Persons Amanda L, Napier T Celeste
Department of Pharmacology, Center for Compulsive Behavior and Addiction, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL, USA ; Department of Pharmacology, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Pharmacology, Center for Compulsive Behavior and Addiction, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL, USA ; Department of Pharmacology, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL, USA ; Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL, USA.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 Jun 11;8:215. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00215. eCollection 2014.
Pathological gambling is one manifestation of impulse control disorders. The biological underpinnings of these disorders remain elusive and treatment is far from ideal. Animal models of impulse control disorders are a critical research tool for understanding this condition and for medication development. Modeling such complex behaviors is daunting, but by its deconstruction, scientists have recapitulated in animals critical aspects of gambling. One aspect of gambling is cost/benefit decision-making wherein one weighs the anticipated costs and expected benefits of a course of action. Risk/reward, delay-based and effort-based decision-making all represent cost/benefit choices. These features are studied in humans and have been translated to animal protocols to measure decision-making processes. Traditionally, the positive reinforcer used in animal studies is food. Here, we describe how intracranial self-stimulation can be used for cost/benefit decision-making tasks and overview our recent studies showing how pharmacological therapies alter these behaviors in laboratory rats. We propose that these models may have value in screening new compounds for the ability to promote and prevent aspects of gambling behavior.
病理性赌博是冲动控制障碍的一种表现形式。这些障碍的生物学基础仍不明确，治疗效果也远不理想。冲动控制障碍的动物模型是理解这种病症和开发药物的关键研究工具。模拟如此复杂的行为颇具挑战性，但通过解构，科学家们已在动物身上重现了赌博的关键方面。赌博的一个方面是成本/收益决策，即权衡某一行动方案的预期成本和预期收益。风险/回报、基于延迟和基于努力的决策都代表着成本/收益选择。这些特征在人类中得到研究，并已转化为动物实验方案以测量决策过程。传统上，动物研究中使用的阳性强化物是食物。在此，我们描述颅内自我刺激如何用于成本/收益决策任务，并概述我们最近的研究，展示药物疗法如何改变实验室大鼠的这些行为。我们认为，这些模型可能在筛选具有促进和预防赌博行为各方面能力的新化合物方面具有价值。
