Punishment resistance for cocaine is associated with inflexible habits in rats
•Punishment resistance for cocaine is associated with continued use of habits.•Punishment sensitivity for cocaine is related to increased goal-directed control.•Punishment resistance for cocaine is not predicted by habitual responding.•Parallel food studies also show a link between punishment resist...
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| Published in: | Addiction neuroscience Vol. 11; p. 100148 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Netherlands
Elsevier B.V
01-06-2024
Elsevier |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | •Punishment resistance for cocaine is associated with continued use of habits.•Punishment sensitivity for cocaine is related to increased goal-directed control.•Punishment resistance for cocaine is not predicted by habitual responding.•Parallel food studies also show a link between punishment resistance and habits.
Addiction is characterized by continued drug use despite negative consequences. In an animal model, a subset of rats continues to self-administer cocaine despite footshock consequences, showing punishment resistance. We sought to test the hypothesis that punishment resistance arises from failure to exert goal-directed control over habitual cocaine seeking. While habits are not inherently permanent or maladaptive, continued use of habits under conditions that should encourage goal-directed control makes them maladaptive and inflexible. We trained male and female Sprague Dawley rats on a seeking-taking chained schedule of cocaine self-administration. We then exposed them to four days of punishment testing in which footshock was delivered randomly on one-third of trials. Before and after punishment testing (four days pre-punishment and ≥ four days post-punishment), we assessed whether cocaine seeking was goal-directed or habitual using outcome devaluation via cocaine satiety. We found that punishment resistance was associated with continued use of habits, whereas punishment sensitivity was associated with increased goal-directed control. Although punishment resistance for cocaine was not predicted by habitual responding pre-punishment, it was associated with habitual responding post-punishment. In parallel studies of food self-administration, we similarly observed that punishment resistance was associated with habitual responding post-punishment but not pre-punishment in males, although it was associated with habitual responding both pre- and post-punishment in females, indicating that punishment resistance was predicted by habitual responding in food-seeking females. These findings indicate that punishment resistance is related to habits that have become inflexible and persist under conditions that should encourage a transition to goal-directed behavior. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 2772-3925 2772-3925 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.addicn.2024.100148 |