Effects of sex and estrous cycle on action-outcome contingencies.

Goal-directed and habitual-like behaviors are both necessary to efficiently and effectively navigate the environment. A dysregulation between these behaviors can lead to an overreliance on habitual-like behaviors and may contribute to symptoms experienced in some neuropsychiatric disorders such as substance use disorder. One behavioral task used to evaluate goal-directed and habitual-like behavior is an action-outcome task, contingency degradation, where an action (i.