Behavioral indicators of succeeding and failing under higher-challenge compulsion-like alcohol drinking in rat.

Behavioral indicators of succeeding and failing under higher-challenge compulsion-like alcohol drinking in rat. Behav Brain Res. 2020 Jun 13;:112768 Authors: Darevsky D, Hopf FW Abstract Intake despite negative consequences (compulsivity) contributes strongly to the harm of alcohol use disorder, making the underlying psychological and circuit mechanisms of great importance. To gain insight into possible underlying action strategies, we compared rat licking microstructure across compulsion-like and non-compulsive conditions. We previously showed that drinking under a moderate-challenge, quinine-alcohol model (Alc-ModQ) shows less variable responding in many measures, suggesting a more automatic strategy to overcome challenge. Here, we reanalyzed our original data, newly focusing on the behavioral profile of higher-challenge intake (100 mg/L quinine in alcohol, Alc-HighQ). Alc-HighQ greatly dropped consumption, yet retained aspects of greater automaticity and drive seen with Alc-ModQ, including earlier bout initiation and measures suggesting more stereotyped tongue control. In contrast, Alc-HighQ disordered bout generation and timing. Importantly, only fast-starting bouts persisted under Alc-HighQ, and while there were many fewer longer Alc-HighQ bouts, they still contributed >50% of consumption. Also, longer bouts under Alc-HighQ had an early, several-second period with greater chance of stopping, but afterwards showed similar pe...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research