Age and sex differences in reward behavior in adolescent and adult rats
ABSTRACT Compared to adults, adolescents are at heightened risk for drug abuse and dependence. One of the factors contributing to this vulnerability may be age‐dependent differences in reward processing, with adolescents approaching reward through stimulus‐directed, rather than goal‐directed, proces...
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Published in | Developmental psychobiology Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 611 - 621 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.05.2014
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | ABSTRACT
Compared to adults, adolescents are at heightened risk for drug abuse and dependence. One of the factors contributing to this vulnerability may be age‐dependent differences in reward processing, with adolescents approaching reward through stimulus‐directed, rather than goal‐directed, processes. However, the empirical evidence for this in rodent models of adolescence, particularly those that investigate both sexes, is limited. To address this, male and female rats that were adolescents (P30) or adults (P98) at the start of the experiment were trained in a Pavlovian approach (PA) task and were subsequently tested for the effects of reward devaluation, extinction, and re‐acquisition. We found significant interactions between age and sex: females had enhanced acquisition of PA and poorer extinction, relative to males, while adolescents and females were less sensitive to reward devaluation than male adults. These results suggest that females and adolescents exhibit reward behavior that is more stimulus‐directed, rather than goal‐directed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 56: 611–621, 2014. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-R41B57RJ-L ArticleID:DEV21127 National Institute on Drug Abuse - No. R01 DA029815 istex:7649179338DFC7AEC663E5A92E5E4A77253CC25E ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0012-1630 1098-2302 |
DOI: | 10.1002/dev.21127 |