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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

Published on: February 20, 2019

Substance use and the value of control.

Elle M Giovanni^1,2,3, Mimi Liljeholm^4,5,6

¹Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

|May 6, 2026

Summary

Substance use impacts decision-making, affecting the desire for control. Abstinence from psychostimulants increases preference for control, while opioid and alcohol abstinence shifts choices towards divergent outcomes and free will.

Keywords:

Abstinence Instrumental control Intrinsic motivation Subjective utility Substance use

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Last Updated: May 8, 2026

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Published on: March 23, 2022

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Behavioral Economics

Background:

Substance use disorders are characterized by a loss of control over consumption.
Limited research explores how substance use affects agency and motivated behavior.
Understanding these effects is crucial for addiction treatment and recovery.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between substance use history and the preference for environmental control.
To examine how abstinence duration influences decision-making in controllable versus uncontrollable environments.
To explore the neural underpinnings of agency in individuals with a history of substance use.

Main Methods:

Utilized a hierarchical gambling task to assess preference for controllable environments.
Employed cross-sectional substance use surveys to categorize participants.
Applied computational cognitive modeling to analyze decision-making patterns.
Included adult humans with self-reported abstinence from psychostimulants, opioids, alcohol, or sedatives.

Main Results:

Longer abstinence from psychostimulants selectively increased the preference for instrumental control.
Longer abstinence from opioids predicted increased preference for divergent outcome distributions.
Longer abstinence from alcohol predicted increased preference for free choice, independent of controllability.
These associations were distinct from the ability to maximize monetary payoffs.

Conclusions:

Substance use history differentially impacts the valuation of agency and control in decision-making.
The dopaminergic system is implicated in the coding of agency, influenced by substance use.
Findings suggest distinct recovery trajectories for different substance use disorders regarding agency and control preferences.