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Characterizing operant hyperactivity in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat.

Jade C Hill¹, Katrina Herbst, Federico Sanabria

¹Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1104, USA.

Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF

|January 27, 2012

Summary

Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) exhibit operant hyperactivity, particularly when reinforcement is infrequent. This behavior is driven by motivational factors and steeper delay-of-reinforcement gradients, supporting SHR as an ADHD animal model.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Behavioral Pharmacology
Animal Models of ADHD

Background:

Operant hyperactivity, characterized by high rates of reinforced responses, is observed in children with ADHD and the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) model.
SHR exhibit hyperactivity primarily when reinforcement is infrequent, suggesting a role for incentive motivation over motor capacity.
This study investigates the motivational underpinnings of operant hyperactivity in SHR using a bout-organized behavior analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the role of incentive motivation versus motoric capacity in driving operant hyperactivity in SHR.
To analyze response-reinforcement functions and bout-organized behavior in SHR compared to normoactive rat strains.
To further validate the SHR as a relevant animal model for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

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Main Methods:

Male SHR, Wistar-Kyoto (WKY), and Wistar (WIS) rats were subjected to multiple variable-interval schedules of sucrose reinforcement.
Behavioral responding was assessed across different reinforcement rates and two developmental epochs (post-natal days 58-62 and 89-93).
Parameters of response-reinforcement functions and bout-organized behavior were estimated for each group and epoch.

Main Results:

SHR displayed higher response rates than WKY and WIS rats, especially under low reinforcement rates (<2 reinforcers/min) and in the later epoch.
Analysis of response bouts revealed shorter but more frequent bouts in SHR compared to WKY and WIS rats.
Differences in bout initiation rate increased over epochs, supporting motivational factors and steeper delay-of-reinforcement gradients in SHR hyperactivity.

Conclusions:

Operant hyperactivity in SHR is confirmed and primarily driven by steeper delay-of-reinforcement gradients, rather than solely motor deficits.
The findings support the significant role of incentive motivation in operant hyperactivity.
The response-bout patterns in SHR align with theoretical models of ADHD and free-operant performance in children, reinforcing SHR's utility as an ADHD model.