Foot shock facilitates reward seeking in an experience-dependent manner

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Animal behavior
• Learning and memory

Background:

• Animals often organize reward-seeking behaviors around aversive events.
• Research indicates foot shock and associated cues typically suppress reward seeking and induce freezing.
• However, prior experience can alter the impact of foot shock, potentially facilitating reward seeking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cue suppression, foot shock suppression, and foot shock facilitation of reward seeking within a unified experimental framework.
• To examine how experience shapes the behavioral responses to aversive stimuli and their associated cues.

Main Methods:

• Male Long Evans rats were trained on a fear discrimination task involving danger, uncertainty, and safety cues.
• This discrimination occurred during a baseline of rewarded nose-poking behavior.
• Behavioral responses were assessed after limited (1-2 sessions) and extensive (10-16 sessions) experience.

Main Results:

• Initially, all cues and foot shock suppressed reward seeking.
• With continued experience, suppression became specific to cues associated with shock.
• Foot shock initially suppressed, but subsequently facilitated, reward seeking behavior.

Conclusions:

• Experience dynamically alters the influence of aversive stimuli on reward-seeking behavior.
• These findings offer a method for evaluating the positive properties of foot shock.
• The results may inform our understanding of maladaptive behaviors associated with aversive events.