d[Formula: see text]: Sensitivity at the optimal criterion location.

Signal detection theory (SDT) was developed to provide a measure of the discriminability of a signal against background noise, independently of response bias. However, equal discriminability over a range of bias is only achieved by the traditional signal detection measure d[Formula: see text] under a narrow set of conditions - i.e.

Language experience predicts semantic priming of lexical decision.

Computational models of semantic memory have been successful in accounting for a wide range of cognitive phenomena, including word categorization, semantic priming, and release from proactive interference. Conventionally, the texts input to these models have been curated to represent the average individual's language experience. While this approach has proven successful for making predictions that generalize across individuals, it prevents consideration of situations in which individuals have divergent semantic representations.

The Semantic Librarian: A search engine built from vector-space models of semantics.

Psychologists have made substantial progress at developing empirically validated formal expressions of how people perceive, learn, remember, think, and know. In this article, we present an academic search engine for cognitive psychology that leverages computational expressions of human cognition (vector-space models of semantics) to represent and find articles in the psychological record. The method shows how psychological theory can be used to inform and aid the design of psychologically intuitive computer interfaces.

Low-dose Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ reduces anxiety-like performance in alcohol-withdrawn, but not alcohol-naïve, Male Wistar rats.

Alcohol withdrawal is associated with neuroadaptation of stress-regulatory systems, including transmission of neuropeptides that have been implicated in anxiety-like performance. Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ (N/OFQ), an endogenous neuropeptide ligand at the NOP receptor, has been implicated in stress and has previously been shown to attenuate or exacerbate anxiety-like performance in rats following a biphasic dose response function. In addition, divergent actions on anxiety-like performance have been observed in alcohol-withdrawn vs.

Modification of anxiety-like behaviors by nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) and time-dependent changes in N/OFQ-NOP gene expression following ethanol withdrawal.

Anxiety is a key consequence of ethanol withdrawal and important risk factor for relapse. The neuropeptide nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) or agonists at this peptide's receptor (NOP) exert anxiolytic-like and antistress actions. N/OFQ dysfunction has been linked to both a high-anxiety behavioral phenotype and excessive ethanol intake.

Revisiting intragastric ethanol intubation as a dependence induction method for studies of ethanol reward and motivation in rats.

Background: The purpose of this study was to re-examine intragastric ethanol intubation as a dependence induction method that effectively induces physical dependence upon ethanol over a short time period, is devoid of intrinsic stress artifacts, inexpensive, and easy to implement.

Methods: Male Wistar rats were subjected to ethanol dependence induction via intragastric ethanol intubation. Ethanol solution (final concentration 20%, made up in a dietary liquid vehicle consisting of powdered milk, sucrose, and water) was intubated 4 times per day, at 4-hour intervals, for 6 consecutive days (for a total of 10 g/kg/day).

The dorsal subiculum mediates the acquisition of conditioned reinstatement of cocaine-seeking.

Contextual stimuli present during a single lifetime cocaine self-administration experience acquire occasion-setting actions sufficient to persistently elicit cocaine-seeking behavior in rats, with effects lasting nearly 1 year. The goal of this study was to identify neural substrates mediating the acquisition of drug-related conditioning taking place during a single cocaine self-administration experience with focus on the subicular formation, a brain site that has been implicated in associative learning relevant for conditioned reward-seeking including conditioned reinstatement. Male Wistar rats were given 2 h of response-contingent access to intravenous cocaine or saline in the presence of distinct stimuli that served as contextual stimuli associated with the availability and subjective effects of cocaine (S(+)) vs saline (S(-)).

Rats with extended access to cocaine exhibit increased stress reactivity and sensitivity to the anxiolytic-like effects of the mGluR 2/3 agonist LY379268 during abstinence.

Metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptors (mGluR2/3) are emerging targets for the reduction of stress that contributes to drug relapse. The effect of a history of cocaine escalation on stress reactivity during abstinence and the role of mGlu2/3 receptors in stress in these animals were tested. Experiment 1-Rats trained to self-administer cocaine, under short (ShA, 1-h) or long (LgA, 6-h) access conditions, or noncaloric food pellets (Ctrl, 1-h), were tested for stress reactivity in the shock-probe defensive burying test following 1, 14, 42, or 84 days of abstinence.

Subchronic cannabinoid agonist (WIN 55,212-2) treatment during cocaine abstinence alters subsequent cocaine seeking behavior.

The co-abuse of marijuana with cocaine is widespread, but it has not been until recently that the relationship between the behavioral effects of cannabinoids and cocaine has begun to be unveiled in animal models. Male Wistar rats were trained to intravenously self-administer cocaine until a stable baseline was reached. Rats then were subjected to a 5-day cocaine deprivation period during which they were treated daily with the cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN 55,212-2 (R-(+)-[2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-(4-morpholinylmethyl)pyrrolo[1,2,3-de]-1,4-benzoxazin-6-yl]-1-naphthalenylmethanone mesylate) (0, 0.

Differential effects of sigma1 receptor blockade on self-administration and conditioned reinstatement motivated by cocaine vs natural reward.

Growing evidence suggests a role for sigma(1) (sigma(1)) receptors in cognitive function, anxiety, depression, regulation of stress responses, and, recently, the appetitive effects of cocaine as measured by conditioned place preference. This study was designed to extend understanding of the role of sigma(1) receptors in addiction-relevant conditioned effects of cocaine by testing the effects of a potent and selective sigma(1) receptor antagonist, BD1047, on conditioned reinstatement of cocaine-seeking. To determine whether modification of conditioned reinstatement by BD1047 is selective for drug-directed behavior or reflects general suppressant effects on motivated behavior, BD1047 was tested also on reinstatement induced by stimuli conditioned to a natural reward, sweetened condensed milk (SCM).

Activation of group II metabotropic glutamate receptors attenuates both stress and cue-induced ethanol-seeking and modulates c-fos expression in the hippocampus and amygdala.

Major precipitating factors for relapse to drug use are stress and exposure to drug-related environmental stimuli. Group II (mGlu(2/3)) metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are densely expressed within circuitries mediating the motivating effects of stress and drug cues and, therefore, may participate in regulating drug-seeking linked to both of these risk factors. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that pharmacological activation of group II mGluRs modifies both stress- and cue-induced ethanol-seeking, using reinstatement models of relapse.

Intra-BLA or intra-NAc infusions of the dopamine D3 receptor partial agonist, BP 897, block intra-NAc amphetamine conditioned activity.

Recent studies have shown that both systemic and intra-nucleus accumbens (NAc) or intra-amygdala administration of dopamine D3 receptor ligands modulate reward-related learning. A previous study (H. Aujla, H.

Intra-accumbens protein kinase C inhibitor NPC 15437 blocks amphetamine-produced conditioned place preference in rats.

In a previous study, intracerebroventricular calcium-dependent protein kinase (PKC) inhibition attenuated cocaine place conditioning. This suggested the hypothesis that intra-nucleus accumbens (NAc) injections of the PKC inhibitor NPC 15437 may block place conditioning produced by NAc injections of amphetamine. An unbiased conditioned place preference paradigm was employed to evaluate the present hypothesis.

A dopamine D3 receptor partial agonist blocks the expression of conditioned activity.

The partial dopamine D3 receptor agonist BP 897 attenuates cocaine seeking suggesting that BP 897 will attenuate conditioned activity to environmental stimuli paired with amphetamine. During conditioning, amphetamine (2.0 mg/kg) stimulated activity and co-treatment with BP 897 (1.