Spatial learning and flexibility in 129S2/SvHsd and C57BL/6J mouse strains using different variants of the Barnes maze
Behavioural flexibility is the ability to switch between tasks and strategies following a change in rules, and involves intact functioning of the medial prefrontal cortex. Impairments of behavioural flexibility have frequently been reported in patients with schizophrenia and rodents with disruption/dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex. The discovery of a mutation in the disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene in the 129 mouse strain suggests that these mice may be exploited as a ‘naturally occurring’ model of schizophrenia. The aim of this present study was to assess cognition and behavioural flexibility of 129S2/SvH...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - November 10, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Effects of daily morphine treatment on impulsivity in rats responding under an adjusting stop-signal reaction time task
Opioids can enhance delay discounting and premature responding under attentional tasks that might reflect increased impulsivity; although it is not clear whether repeated opioid administration alters behavioral inhibition. Effects of morphine and amphetamine were determined before, during, and after daily morphine administration in rats responding under a stop-signal reaction time task, measuring behavioral inhibition and motor impulsivity. Rats (n=5) completed a two-response sequence to earn food. Occasionally, a tone (stop signal) was presented signifying that food would only be presented if the second response was withh...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - November 10, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Response-inhibition capacity in spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar rats: acquisition of fixed minimum interval performance and responsiveness to D-amphetamine
Reduced response-inhibition capacity is a defining feature of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The fixed minimum interval (FMI) schedule has been systematically validated to assess such capacity in rats. On each FMI trial, the first lever press initiates an inter-response time (IRT); a potentially consummatory response terminates the IRT; only IRTs longer than a target interval result in access to food. Despite task validity, steady-state FMI performance in the most common animal model of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), is similar to normotensive control performa...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - November 10, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: RESEARCH REPORTS Source Type: research
Announcement of Special Issues for 2019: Stress and Neuroinflammation
No abstract available (Source: Behavioural Pharmacology)
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - November 10, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: AANNOUNCEMENT Source Type: research
The pharmacology of executive functioning: part 2 research reports
No abstract available (Source: Behavioural Pharmacology)
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - November 10, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: EDITORIAL Source Type: research
Gut–brain axis in the executive function of austism spectrum disorder
In conclusion, manipulation of microbiota could be a positive intervention to improve ASD symptoms. However, more research evaluating the role of microbiota in the cognitive symptoms ASD is needed. (Source: Behavioural Pharmacology)
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Executive (dys)function after stroke: special considerations for behavioral pharmacology
Stroke is a worldwide leading cause of death and long-term disability with concurrent secondary consequences that are largely comprised of mood dysfunction, as well as sensory, motor, and cognitive deficits. This review focuses on the cognitive deficits associated with stroke specific to executive dysfunction (including decision making, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) in humans, nonhuman primates, and additional animal models. Further, we review some of the cellular and molecular underpinnings of the individual components of executive dysfunction and their neuroanatomical substrates after stroke, with an emphasi...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Executive (dys)function after traumatic brain injury: special considerations for behavioral pharmacology
Executive function is an umbrella term that includes cognitive processes such as decision-making, impulse control, attention, behavioral flexibility, and working memory. Each of these processes depends largely upon monoaminergic (dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic) neurotransmission in the frontal cortex, striatum, and hippocampus, among other brain areas. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces disruptions in monoaminergic signaling along several steps in the neurotransmission process – synthesis, distribution, and breakdown – and in turn, produces long-lasting deficits in several executive function domains. U...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
The acute effects of cannabis on human executive function
Cannabis remains the most frequently used illicit drug worldwide. It produces a broad range of acute effects, such as euphoria, increased heart rate and perceptual alterations. Over the last few decades, a substantial number of experiments have been conducted to provide insight into the acute effects of cannabis on cognition. Here, we systematically review studies that investigated the impact of administration of cannabis or [INCREMENT]9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, on human executive function, in particular, on the three principal domains of inhibition, working memory and reasoning/...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Executive functioning: perspectives on neurotrophic activity and pharmacology
Executive functioning is a high-level cognitive ability, regulating other abilities and behaviors to achieve desired goals. A typical executive task can be defined as the capacity to maintain one’s attention on the current task, that is, responding only to the correct but not to distractive stimuli. Impairments of executive functions, or executive dysfunctions, have a growing impact on everyday life and academic achievement and are usually an early feature, and one of the core features, in brain injury and memory and behavioral disorders. Furthermore, emerging evidence indicates that memory therapeutics cannot achieve th...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Dopamine effects on stress-induced working memory deficits
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a critical role in mediating executive functions and orchestrating the way in which we think, decide, and behave. Many studies have shown that PFC neurons not only play a major role in mediating behavioral responses to stress but are also sensitive to stress and undergo remodeling following stress exposure. Activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis as a result of stress initiates a flood of alterations in prefrontal neurotransmitter release. Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission in the PFC is involved in the modulation of stress responsiveness. Compelling results show that stress...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Dopamine and reward: a view from the prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a heterogeneous area that is critical to reward-based decision-making. In particular, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial PFC and orbitofrontal cortex are frequently implicated in different aspects of choice behaviour. These regions receive projections from midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons and, in turn, project to other key dopaminergic regions such as the striatum. However, our current understanding of the role of DA in reward-based processes is based mainly on studies of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and striatal DA release from nonhuman animal models. An important gap in the l...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches to manipulate attention, impulsivity and behavioural flexibility in rodents
Studies manipulating neural activity acutely with optogenetic or chemogenetic intervention in behaving rodents have increased considerably in recent years. More often, these circuit-level neural manipulations are tested within an existing framework of behavioural testing that strives to model complex executive functions or symptomologies relevant to multidimensional psychiatric disorders in humans, such as attentional control deficits, impulsivity or behavioural (in)flexibility. This methods perspective argues in favour of carefully implementing these acute circuit-based approaches to better understand and model cognitive ...
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research
Announcement of Special Issues for 2019: Stress and neuroinflammation
No abstract available (Source: Behavioural Pharmacology)
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Announcement Source Type: research
The pharmacology of executive functioning
No abstract available (Source: Behavioural Pharmacology)
Source: Behavioural Pharmacology - September 15, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
