Interactions between Impulsivity and Reward: Relevance to Drug Addiction

冲动与奖励之间的相互作用：与毒瘾的相关性

• 批准号: 203707-2012
• 负责人: Olmstead, Mary
• 金额: $ 4.74万
• 依托单位: Queen's University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=523522
• 关键词: Interactions; between; Impulsivity; Reward; Relevance

Effective interaction with the world around us depends on the ability to modify our behaviour in response to environmental cues. These cues provide information on appropriate actions, not only which responses are correct but also when they should be initiated. Standing at an intersection in any large city makes this point obvious: failure to wait for a green light can have disastrous consequences. During the last granting period, my research team focused on these impulsive actions, behaviours we describe as 'right move, wrong time'. Our work in animal models revealed novel pharmacological, cellular and molecular mechanisms of impulsive action. We now propose to move the work in a new direction by investigating how impulsivity and reward processes interact, and how this interaction is disrupted in pathological conditions such as drug abuse. Specific projects will be organized around five central themes. The first will use electrophysiological techniques to examine the role of specific cortical regions in learning to inhibit a motor response. The second will investigate the genetic basis of impulsive action using state-of-the-art molecular biology tools. The third set of experiments will attempt to uncover the cognitive processes that contribute to impulsive responding and the neural systems that mediate these effects. The fourth set of studies will examine how individual differences in reward processing alter impulsive action. Finally, we will investigate the relationship between impulsive action and compulsive responding for natural rewards, using a rat model of sucrose bingeing. In the long-term, I propose to extend this work from proximate (causal) to ultimate (functional) explanations of behaviour by examining the evolutionary significance of impulsive action. This systematic investigation of the mechanisms underlying impulsivity-reward interactions will provide a comprehensive understanding of how individuals navigate in their environment, producing both adaptive and maladaptive responses to rewarding stimuli.

与周围世界的有效互动取决于我们根据环境线索改变行为的能力。这些线索提供了关于适当行动的信息，不仅是哪些反应是正确的，而且是何时应该开始的。站在任何一个大城市的十字路口都可以明显看出这一点：不等待绿色信号灯可能会带来灾难性的后果。在最后一次授予期间，我的研究团队专注于这些冲动行为，我们将其描述为“正确的举动，错误的时间”。我们在动物模型中的工作揭示了脉冲作用的新的药理学、细胞和分子机制。我们现在建议通过研究冲动和奖励过程如何相互作用，以及这种相互作用在药物滥用等病理条件下如何被破坏，将工作推向一个新的方向。将围绕五个中心主题组织具体项目。第一部分将使用电生理学技术来研究特定皮层区域在学习抑制运动反应中的作用。第二部分将使用最先进的分子生物学工具研究冲动行为的遗传基础。第三组实验将试图揭示有助于冲动反应的认知过程以及介导这些效应的神经系统。第四组研究将考察奖励处理中的个体差异如何改变冲动行为。最后，我们将研究冲动行为和自然奖励的强迫反应之间的关系，使用大鼠模型的蔗糖暴食。从长远来看，我建议通过研究冲动行为的进化意义，将这项工作从近似（因果）扩展到最终（功能）解释行为。这种冲动奖励互动的机制的系统调查将提供一个全面的了解个人如何在他们的环境中导航，产生适应性和适应不良的反应奖励刺激。