Eckard Matthew L, Kyonka Elizabeth G E
West Virginia University, United States.
Psychology and Behavioural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
Behav Processes. 2018 Jun;151:111-118. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.02.022. Epub 2018 Mar 30.
Timing processes have been implicated as potential mechanisms that underlie self-controlled choice. To investigate the impact of an intervention that has been shown to increase self-controlled choice on timing processes, accuracy and precision of temporal discrimination were assessed in an 18-s peak procedure (18-s fixed interval trials; 54-s peak trials). During an intervention phase, mice in three treatment groups experienced differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) schedules of reinforcement of 27 s, 18 s, or 9 s. A fourth group received continued exposure to the peak procedure. After the DRL intervention, timing was reassessed using the peak procedure. In contrast to previous reports, the DRL intervention resulted in less precise timing as indicated by increased peak spread and disrupted single-trial measures of temporal control. These effects were only detected just after the DRL intervention suggesting a transient effect of DRL exposure on timing. The increase in peak spread in the present experiment suggests delay exposure via DRL schedules may produce a "dose-dependent" effect on temporal discrimination, which may also increase self-controlled choice.
计时过程被认为是自我控制选择背后的潜在机制。为了研究一种已被证明能增加自我控制选择的干预措施对计时过程的影响，在一个18秒峰值程序（18秒固定间隔试验；54秒峰值试验）中评估了时间辨别力的准确性和精确性。在干预阶段，三个治疗组的小鼠经历了27秒、18秒或9秒的低速率强化（DRL）强化程序。第四组继续接受峰值程序。DRL干预后，使用峰值程序重新评估计时。与之前的报告相反，DRL干预导致计时精度降低，表现为峰值扩散增加和时间控制的单次试验测量受到干扰。这些效应仅在DRL干预后立即检测到，表明DRL暴露对计时有短暂影响。本实验中峰值扩散的增加表明，通过DRL程序的延迟暴露可能对时间辨别产生“剂量依赖性”效应，这也可能增加自我控制选择。
