Application of synchronous music reinforcement to increase walking speed: A novel approach for training intensity.

Walking is a common and preferred form of exercise. Although there are current recommendations for walking volume (e.g.

Assessing stimulus preference using response force in a conjugate preparation: A replication and extension.

The current study examined 98 participants' preferences for five pictorial stimuli. The researchers used a verbal multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (VMSWO) preference assessment with each participant to identify high-preference and low-preference pictorial stimuli. Next, participants viewed each pictorial stimulus in a randomized order on a computer while using a hand dynamometer that measured the amount of force they exerted to increase or maintain the visual clarity of each image.

Comparing stimulus preference and response force in a conjugate preparation: A replication with auditory stimulation.

This study examined a conjugate approach for evaluating auditory stimulus preference for 81 participants using force as a continuous response dimension. First, the researchers used a verbal preference assessment to evaluate each participant's preference for listening to five genres of music. This process identified high-preference and low-preference music for each participant.

Operant responding: Beyond rate and interresponse times.

Steve Fowler is best known for his contributions to neuroscience and pharmacology, especially in the behavioral characterization of antipsychotic drugs, which he pursued with great skill and ingenuity. The present review highlights some of his important contributions in understanding the interactions between pharmacology and learning systems, in particular operant learning. Much of Steve's work resulted in novel measurement systems that offered important insights about behavior that were not accessible with traditional operant approaches, which tend to emphasize response rate and interresponse times.

Comparing stimulus preference and response force in a conjugate preparation.

Researchers used a conjugate preparation to evaluate how response force changed based on participants' preferences for visual stimuli. First, researchers used a verbal preference assessment to evaluate each participant's preference for viewing for five object categories of visual stimuli; this process identified high preference (HP) stimuli and low preference stimuli for most participants. Thereafter, researchers exposed each participant to the five stimulus categories in a randomized order while using a force dynamometer to measure their response force to increase visual clarity of each stimulus.

A review of the behavioral effects of response force: Perspectives on measurement and functions.

Response force is a fundamental dimension of behavior. Yet, little is known about its functional significance for learning. The present review examines the behavioral effects of force across several domains.

The effects of force requirements on microstructure: Subcriterion responses and the mismeasurement of bouts.

The effects of response force on microstructure were evaluated. A strain-gauge operandum permitted the manipulation of the force required to produce reinforcers (criterion responses) independently from the force defining response threshold. Thus, we could detect subcriterion forces that fell short of the force criterion.

The role of response force on the persistence and structure of behavior during extinction.

Behavior Momentum Theory has emerged as a prominent account of resistance to change in both basic and applied research. Although laboratory studies often define precise, repeatable responses, application research often deals with response classes that may vary widely along a number of dimensions. In general, Behavior Momentum Theory has not addressed how response dimensions impact resistance to change, providing an opportunity to expand the model in new directions.

Aversive functions of response effort: Fact or artifact?

Historically, effort has been viewed as aversive. Most supporting evidence comes from studies demonstrating increased force/effort requirements reduce operant responding. Changes in force/effort requirements, however, are often accompanied by changes in response definition when mechanical devices are used to define the response.

Determinants of choice, and vulnerability and recovery in addiction.

Addiction may be viewed as choice governed by competing contingencies. One factor impacting choice, particularly as it relates to addiction, is sensitivity to delayed rewards. Discounting of delayed rewards influences addiction vulnerability because of competition between relatively immediate gains of drug use, e.

Conditioned stimuli's role in relapse: preclinical research on Pavlovian-Instrumental-Transfer.

Rationale And Objective: Pavlovian learning is central to many theories of addiction. In these theories, stimuli paired with drug ingestion become conditioned stimuli (CS) and subsequently elicit drug-seeking and drug-taking. However, in most relevant studies, Pavlovian and instrumental learning are confounded.

Use of an operant paradigm for the study of antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction.

These studies were designed to develop a paradigm for the detection of antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction in female rats. Ovariectomized, Fischer rats were conditioned to nose poke to open a guillotine door to gain access to a sexually active male. To develop the procedure, we examined the acquisition and stability of the response with a 15-s fixed interval, compared rats treated with 10 μg estradiol benzoate and 500 μg progesterone with those that received only estradiol benzoate, and carried out a preliminary analysis of the effects of 5, 10, and 15 mg/kg fluoxetine.

Ethanol self-administration in mice under a second-order schedule.

Long Fixed-Interval (FI) schedules, particularly second-order schedules, can engender substantial responding before drug or ethanol delivery that is uninfluenced by the direct effects of the drug or ethanol. Thus, these schedules can be used to study the effects of medications upon drug- or ethanol-seeking, uninfluenced by the direct effects of the self-administered drug or ethanol. Long FI second-order schedules are frequently used in primates and occasionally in rats.

Reinforcer magnitude and rate dependency: evaluation of resistance-to-change mechanisms.

Under many circumstances, reinforcer magnitude appears to modulate the rate-dependent effects of drugs such that when schedules arrange for relatively larger reinforcer magnitudes rate dependency is attenuated compared with behavior maintained by smaller magnitudes. The current literature on resistance to change suggests that increased reinforcer density strengthens operant behavior, and such strengthening effects appear to extend to the temporal control of behavior. As rate dependency may be understood as a loss of temporal control, the effects of reinforcer magnitude on rate dependency may be due to increased resistance to disruption of temporally controlled behavior.

Force dynamics in fixed-ratio schedules.

Fixed-ratio schedules are widely used in behavioral research. Although fixed-ratio schedules often conjure up relationships to work and effort, little is known about effort-related measures in these schedules. Early research had shown that force and effort of operant behavior vary systematically during the execution of ratio schedules, and the goal of the present study was to revisit early research on force dynamics in fixed-ratio schedules.

Ethanol effects on multiple fixed-interval, fixed-ratio responding in mice with deletions of the serotonin transporter gene.

Serotonin transporter knockout (KO) mice self-administer less ethanol than either heterozygous or wild-type mice; however, the mechanistic basis for this difference remains unclear. Here we examine the possibility that ethanol more readily decreases responding in KO mice, thereby limiting ethanol self-administration. To examine whether KO mice were more sensitive to the response-decreasing effects of ethanol, we administered ethanol (0.

Reinforcer magnitude attenuates: apomorphine's effects on operant pecking.

When given to pigeons, the direct-acting dopamine agonist apomorphine elicits pecking. The response has been likened to foraging pecking because it bears remarkable similarity to foraging behavior, and it is enhanced by food deprivation. On the other hand, other data suggest the response is not related to foraging behavior and may even interfere with food ingestion.

Delay discounting in Lewis and Fischer 344 rats: steady-state and rapid-determination adjusting-amount procedures.

Lewis rats have been shown to make more impulsive choices than Fischer 344 rats in discrete-trial choice procedures that arrange fixed (i.e., nontitrating) reinforcement parameters.

The potency of fluvoxamine to reduce ethanol self-administration decreases with concurrent availability of food.

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluvoxamine reduces responding for ethanol at lower doses than responding for food when each is available in separate components or separate groups of rats. However, when both are available concurrently and deliveries earned per session are equal, this apparent selectivity inverts and food-maintained behavior is more sensitive than ethanol-maintained behavior to rate-decreasing effects of fluvoxamine. Here, we investigated further the impact that concurrent access to both food and ethanol has on the potency of fluvoxamine.

Reinforcement magnitude modulation of rate dependent effects in pigeons and rats.

Response rate can influence the behavioral effects of many drugs. Reinforcement magnitude may also influence drug effects. Further, reinforcement magnitude can influence rate-dependent effects.

Delay discounting in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice: adolescent-limited and life-persistent patterns of impulsivity.

Impulsivity is a defining characteristic of adolescence. Compared to adults, for example, adolescents engage in higher rates of drug and alcohol experimentation, risky sexual practices, and criminal activity. Such behavior may reflect reduced sensitivity to long-term consequences of behavior during adolescence.

Acute and chronic effects of cocaine on the spontaneous behavior of pigeons.

The present experiment examined the effects of acute and daily cocaine on spontaneous behavior patterns of pigeons. After determining the acute effects of a range of doses, 9 pigeons were divided into three groups that received one of three doses of cocaine daily, either 1.0, 3.

Dopamine Release and Uptake Impairments and Behavioral Alterations Observed in Mice that Model Fragile X Mental Retardation Syndrome.

In this study we evaluated the relationship between amphetamine-induced behavioral alterations and dopamine release and uptake characteristics in Fmr1 knockout (Fmr1 KO) mice, which model fragile X syndrome. The behavioral analyses, obtained at millisecond temporal resolution and 2 mm spatial resolution using a force-plate actometer, revealed that Fmr1 KO mice express a lower degree of focused stereotypy compared to wild type (WT) control mice after injection with 10 mg/kg (ip) amphetamine. To identify potentially related neurochemical mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, we measured electrically-evoked dopamine release and uptake using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in striatal brain slices.

Effects of acute pramipexole on preference for gambling-like schedules of reinforcement in rats.

Rationale: Pramipexole and other direct dopamine agonist medications have been implicated in the development of impulsive behavior such as pathological gambling among those taking the drug to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease or restless leg syndrome. Few laboratory studies examining pramipexole's effects on gambling-like behavior have been conducted.

Objectives: The present study used a rodent model approximating some aspects of human gambling to examine within-subject effects of acute pramipexole (0.