A Conditioned Reinforcement Approach to Improving Self-Control

项目摘要 对未来后果的急剧低估与药物滥用和其他成瘾行为密切相关。 紊乱预防这些疾病可以通过提高个体延迟满足的能力来实现， 容忍拖延，从而减少冲动的选择。几个实验室试图发展学习- 旨在减少冲动选择的干预措施。我们的实验室已经开创了这样一种方法-延迟- 暴露训练-这已被严格证明可以产生大的和持久的减少大鼠的 冲动的选择在探索大鼠在延迟暴露训练中学习的过程中，我们发现， 延迟信号刺激的耐受性上级对照组大鼠。也就是说，当老鼠被给予 有机会按下杠杆关闭刺激信号延迟到一个大的食物奖励，延迟暴露训练 老鼠很少关闭它。相比之下，对照组大鼠经常关闭延迟信号刺激， 证明了对他们来说刺激是令人厌恶的。观察到对延迟信号刺激的类似厌恶 在被诊断患有多动症的儿童中， 设置.拟议中的研究将利用我们的发现做更多的不仅仅是使延迟信号 刺激不那么令人厌恶。我们建议在测试冲动之前， 选择巴甫洛夫的方法来实现这一点是建立良好的，但没有先前的实验试图 在治疗上减少冲动性选择已经采用了这些方法。该项目有两个目标。一是 评估巴甫洛夫训练、延迟暴露训练和 这些训练技术的组合;所有组与对照组进行比较。第二，评价 巴甫洛夫过程对冲动选择变化的贡献这将通过 操纵一个影响巴甫洛夫学习的变量（C/t比）。因为巴甫洛夫学习发生在 在最佳条件下快速（即，大的C/t比），我们希望巴甫洛夫训练证明更有效， 在减少冲动选择方面比延迟暴露训练更有效。这些发现将加快 发现在实验室，并将有翻译的影响，弹性建设预防方案设计 来减少人类的冲动重要的是，这些发现将被用作支持非人类和 人类研究探索这些基本和转化的影响。

PROJECT SUMMARY Steeply devaluing future consequences is robustly correlated with substance abuse and other addictive disorders. Preventing these disorders might be achieved by improving the individual’s ability to delay gratification, to tolerate delays, and thereby to make fewer impulsive choices. Several labs have sought to develop learning- based interventions designed to reduce impulsive choice. Our lab has pioneered one such method – delay- exposure training – which has been rigorously demonstrated to produce large and lasting reductions in rats’ impulsive choices. While exploring what rats learn during delay-exposure training, we discovered that their tolerance of delay-signaling stimuli was superior to that of control-group rats. That is, when rats were given an opportunity to press a lever to turn off a stimulus signaling a delay to a large food-reward, delay-exposure trained rats rarely turned it off. By contrast, control-group rats frequently turned off the delay-signaling stimulus, thereby demonstrating that, to them, the stimulus was aversive. A similar aversion to delay-signaling stimuli is observed among children diagnosed with ADHD, and signaled delays can induce problem behavior in children in school settings. The proposed research will capitalize on our finding by doing more than just making the delay-signaling stimulus less-aversive. We propose to make that stimulus a conditioned reinforcer prior to the test of impulsive choice. Pavlovian methods for accomplishing this are well established, but no prior experiments seeking to therapeutically reduce impulsive choice have employed these methods. The project has two aims. First, to evaluate the relative short- and long-term efficacy of Pavlovian training, delay-exposure training, and a combination of these training techniques; all groups compared to a control group. Second, to evaluate the contribution of Pavlovian processes to the changes in impulsive choice. This will be accomplished by manipulating a variable which impacts Pavlovian learning (the C/t ratio). Because Pavlovian learning occurs rapidly under optimal conditions (i.e., large C/t ratios) we expect Pavlovian training to prove more efficient and more effective in reducing impulsive choice than delay-exposure training. Such findings will speed the pace of discovery in the lab, and will have translational implications for resiliency building prevention-programs designed to reduce human impulsivity. Importantly, the findings will be used as preliminary data supporting nonhuman and human research exploring these basic and translational implications.