Cognitive and neural underpinnings of the interaction between reward-paired cues, risky choice, and cognitive flexibility
department or school: Medicine, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Hathaway, Brett Alexander
issued: 2023-04-20T14:25:59Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Deficits in cost/benefit decision making are a critical risk factor for substance use disorder and behavioural addictions such as gambling disorder. Reward-concurrent cues may mediate this relationship, as such stimuli enhance risk preference and can potentiate cocaine intake in rats. To investigate the influence of cues on brain functioning and cost/benefit decision making, we utilize the rat Gambling Task. This task was designed such that maximal reward is attained by avoiding the high-risk, high-reward options and instead favouring the options associated with lower per-trial gains, as they feature less frequent and shorter time-out penalties. Adding reward-paired audiovisual cues to the task leads to greater risky choice on average. As inflexible pursuit of rewards is a critical component of drug and behavioural addictions, I tested whether these cues can also induce inflexibility in choice patterns. Results showed that win-paired cues but not loss-paired or randomly occurring cues drive risky choice as well as inflexibility in responding following shifts in reinforcer value. I also investigated potential neurobiological mechanisms of the impact of cues on decision making. I showed that altering serotonergic signaling in the lateral OFC can both ameliorate cue-induced risky choice and restore sensitivity to reinforcer devaluation. Furthermore, I showed that altering lateral OFC activity differentially affects choice patterns during early task learning on the uncued versus cued rGT, further demonstrating that OFC output is substantially impacted by the inclusion of cues on the task. I also showed that dopamine activity in the dorsal striatum is involved in the development and performance of choice patterns on the cued rGT, at least in females; inhibiting dopamine pathways projecting to the dorsal striatum resulted in an initial increase in risky choice followed by a subsequent long-term improvement in decision making. Thus, the role of dopamine in guiding choice t…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/84359
note: COGNITIVE AND NEURAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN REWARD-PAIRED CUES, RISKY CHOICE, AND COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY by Brett Alexander Hathaway B.A. (Hon), The University of British Columbia, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Neuroscience) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2023 © Brett Alexander Hathaway, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Cognitive and neural underpinnings of the interaction between reward-paired cues, risky choice, and cognitive flexibility submitted by Brett Alexander Hathaway in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience Examining Committee: Dr. Catharine Winstanley, Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisor Dr. Rebecca Todd, Associate Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Manu Madhav, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Lynn Raymond, Professor, Psychiatry, UBC University Examiner Dr. Dale Griffin, Professor, Marketing and Behavioural Science, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Dr. Christian Schütz, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Deficits in cost/benefit decision making are a critical risk factor for substance use disorder and behavioural addictions such as gambling disorder. Reward-concurrent cues may mediate this relationship, as such stimuli enhance risk preference and can potentiate cocaine intake in rats. To investigate the influence of cues on brain functioning and cost/benefit decision making, we utilize the rat Gambling Task. This task was designed such that maximal reward is attained by avoiding the high-risk, high-reward options and instead favouring the options a…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0431199
language: eng
degree discipline: Neuroscience
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Winstanley, Catharine
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84359