Assessing Impulsivity in High Alcohol Preferring Mice

描述(申请人提供)：这项建议的长期目标是更好地理解冲动选择，因为它与酒精中毒有关。冲动很可能会导致酗酒行为：人类和动物的文献都表明，冲动早于酗酒。我们将使用延迟折扣任务(一种已建立的冲动模型)来评估酒精中毒动物模型--高酒精偏好(HAP)小鼠的冲动。我们的一般假设是，HAP小鼠在糖精奖励下表现出比低酒精偏好的小鼠更高的冲动。不能容忍延迟奖励是吸毒者、酗酒者和强迫性赌徒的特征。此外，我们的目标是评估暴露在乙醇中的HAP小鼠，看看乙醇暴露本身是否有助于冲动选择。如果我们能证明根据酒精偏好选择的HAP小鼠更冲动，那么我们就可以证明冲动与酒精偏好是共选的，我们就会有一个冲动的动物模型。我们还将寻求确定酒精暴露本身是否会加剧冲动。冲动的动物模型将通过发现冲动的神经化学和解剖学基础，使该领域向前发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-range goal of this proposal is to better understand impulsive choice as it relates to alcoholism. Impulsivity may well contribute to the behavior of alcoholism: both human and animal literature shows that impulsivity predates alcoholism. We will use the delay discounting task (an established model of impulsivity) to assess impulsivity in an animal model of alcoholism, the High Alcohol Preferring (HAP) mice. Our general hypothesis is that the HAP mice will show higher impulsivity with saccharin rewards than the Low Alcohol Preferring mice. Intolerance to delay of reward is characteristic of drug addicts, alcoholics, and compulsive gamblers. Additionally, we aim to assess HAP mice that have been exposed to ethanol to see if ethanol exposure itself contributes to impulsive choice. If we can demonstrate that the HAP mice, which have been selected on the basis of alcohol preference, are more impulsive, then we can show that impulsivity is coselected with alcohol preference, and we will have an animal model of impulsivity. We will also seek to determine if ethanol exposure itself exacerbates impulsivity. An animal model of impulsivity will allow the field to move forward by discovering neurochemical and anatomical substrates of impulsivity.