Proactive Versus Reactive Control Strategies Differentially Mediate Alcohol Drinking in Wistar and P rats

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Problematic alcohol consumption is linked to decision-making deficits and prefrontal cortex alterations.
• Cognitive control, crucial for goal-directed behavior, comprises proactive and reactive components.
• Understanding these control strategies in animal models can illuminate human alcohol use disorder (AUD) risk.

Approach:

• Compared cognitive control strategies in Wistar rats and alcohol-preferring P rats during an alcohol-seeking task.
• Recorded prefrontal cortex neural activity during congruent and incongruent cue-reward sessions.
• Assessed behavioral responses, specifically incorrect approaches, in relation to task demands.

Key Points:

• Wistar rats demonstrated proactive control by adapting to task rule changes, unlike P rats.
• P rats exhibited reactive control, with neural activity changes timed to alcohol availability.
• Wistar rats showed pre-stimulus neural activity indicative of proactive control, while P rats showed activity at stimulus onset.

Conclusions:

• Wistar rats preferentially employ proactive cognitive control, whereas P rats utilize reactive control strategies.
• Differences in cognitive control mechanisms may underlie genetic predisposition to alcohol preference and AUD.
• These findings offer insights into the neural basis of decision-making deficits in alcohol use disorder.