Concurrent performances: a baseline for the study of conditioned anxiety

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior
• Operant Conditioning

Background:

• Concurrent schedules of reinforcement are used to study choice behavior.
• Conditioned anxiety can significantly alter decision-making processes.
• Understanding how aversive stimuli impact reinforcement schedules is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how conditioned anxiety affects choice behavior in rats under concurrent reinforcement schedules.
• To analyze response rates and preference shifts when aversive stimuli are introduced and removed.

Main Methods:

• Rats were trained on concurrent random interval schedules with a changeover delay.
• A stimulus paired with unavoidable shocks was superimposed on the baseline.
• A conditioned anxiety paradigm with a pre-shock stimulus was employed.

Main Results:

• Initial shock presentation led to ambiguous preference shifts, confounded by shock-elicited bursts.
• Termination of shocks facilitated responding on the less-preferred lever and restored matching.
• In a conditioned anxiety paradigm, rats showed a marked preference shift, suppressing less on the preferred lever.

Conclusions:

• Conditioned anxiety significantly alters choice behavior, leading to preference shifts.
• The impact of aversive stimuli on reinforcement schedules can be complex and requires careful experimental design.
• Recovery of matching behavior after shock removal highlights the dynamic nature of learned associations.