Department of Psychological Science, Northern Kentucky University, 1 Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA.
Department of Psychological Science, Northern Kentucky University, 1 Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 Nov 1;228:109079. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109079. Epub 2021 Sep 24.
Excessive risk taking is a characteristic trait of several psychiatric conditions, including substance use disorders. High risk-taking (HiR) rats self-administer more cocaine compared to low risk-taking (LoR) rats. However, research has not determined if risk taking is associated with enhanced cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP).
Male and female Sprague Dawley rats (n = 48 each sex) were first tested in the risky decision task (RDT), in which a response on one lever resulted in safe delivery of one food pellet, and a response on a different lever resulted in delivery of two pellets and probabilistic delivery of foot shock. Following RDT training, rats were tested for cocaine CPP. The first session was a pretest that measured rats' preference for three compartments that provided different visual and tactile cues. Rats then learned to associate one compartment with cocaine (either 10.0 mg/kg or 20.0 mg/kg; i.p.) and one compartment with saline (1.0 ml/kg; i.p.) across eight conditioning sessions. Finally, rats explored all three compartments in a drug-free state.
Sex significantly moderated the association between risky decision making and cocaine CPP. While increased risk aversion was somewhat positively associated with cocaine CPP in males, increased risk taking was positively correlated with cocaine CPP in females.
These results highlight the moderating role of sex on the relationship between risky decision making and cocaine reward.
冒险行为是包括物质使用障碍在内的几种精神疾病的特征。与低风险（LoR）大鼠相比，高风险（HiR）大鼠会自行摄入更多可卡因。然而，研究尚未确定冒险行为是否与增强的可卡因条件位置偏好（CPP）有关。
雄性和雌性 Sprague Dawley 大鼠（n=每组 48 只）首先在冒险决策任务（RDT）中进行测试，在该任务中，对一个杠杆的反应会安全地提供一个食物丸，而对另一个杠杆的反应会提供两个丸并以概率提供足部电击。在 RDT 训练后，对大鼠进行可卡因 CPP 测试。第一个测试是预测试，用于测量大鼠对提供不同视觉和触觉线索的三个隔间的偏好。然后，大鼠学习将一个隔间与可卡因（10.0mg/kg 或 20.0mg/kg；ip）和一个隔间与盐水（1.0ml/kg；ip）相关联，共进行 8 个条件化阶段。最后，大鼠在无药物状态下探索所有三个隔间。
性别显著调节了冒险决策与可卡因 CPP 之间的关联。虽然在男性中，风险规避的增加与可卡因 CPP 呈正相关，而在女性中，风险偏好的增加与可卡因 CPP 呈正相关。
这些结果突出了性别在冒险决策与可卡因奖赏之间关系中的调节作用。
