Skalnik Evdokia, Ivlieva Natalia
Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, RAS, 5A Butlerova Street, 117485 Moscow, Russian Federation.
Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, RAS, 5A Butlerova Street, 117485 Moscow, Russian Federation.
Neurosci Lett. 2025 Feb 16;849:138132. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2025.138132. Epub 2025 Jan 25.
Contemporary analyses of neurophysiological mechanisms of associative learning suggest that instrumental behavior can be controlled by separable action and habit processes. An increasingly broad range of human psychiatric and neurological disorders are now associated with maladaptive habit formation. The question of how the brain controls transitions into habit is thus relevant. Widely used training procedures that might differentially generate goal-directed actions or habits are variable schedules of reinforcement. Random interval schedules are known to generate habitual behavior compared with random ratio schedules Here, we report attempt to identify the behavioral characteristics of the bifurcation point of habitual and goal-directed behavior. We compared the time courses of learning in random ratio and random interval schedules with more common for neurophysiological researches parameters. Behavioral differences between schedules emerge early in learning. However, in outcome devaluation test we found that training in the random ratio schedule, but not in the random interval schedule, led to results interpreted as habitual behavior. This result is the opposite of what we expected based on previous research. We assume that the most commonly used variable schedules of reinforcement cannot serve as a reliable tool for analyzing neural mechanisms of habitual and goal-directed behavior.
对联想学习神经生理机制的当代分析表明，工具性动作可由可分离的动作和习惯过程控制。如今，越来越多的人类精神和神经疾病与适应不良的习惯形成有关。因此，大脑如何控制向习惯的转变这一问题就变得很重要。广泛使用的可能会不同程度地产生目标导向动作或习惯的训练程序是强化的可变时间表。与随机比率时间表相比，随机间隔时间表已知会产生习惯性行为。在此，我们报告了试图确定习惯性行为和目标导向行为分歧点的行为特征。我们将随机比率和随机间隔时间表中的学习时间进程与神经生理学研究中更常见的参数进行了比较。时间表之间的行为差异在学习早期就出现了。然而，在结果贬值测试中，我们发现随机比率时间表的训练而非随机间隔时间表的训练导致了被解释为习惯性行为的结果。这一结果与我们基于先前研究的预期相反。我们认为，最常用的强化可变时间表不能作为分析习惯性行为和目标导向行为神经机制的可靠工具。
