Behavioral neuroscience最新文献

Evidence has shown that sex differences affect the symptoms and the response to treatments in neuropsychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Extinction, as a therapeutic method, and reinstatement, as a method that facilitates shock-related memory retrieval, may also be affected by sex differences; however, evidence is sparse. The present study aimed to explore the potential role of sex differences in the effect of extinction and reinstatement on behavioral functions in a rat model of PTSD. Fear learning was induced by three consecutive footshocks (0.8 mA, 3 s, paired with three sounds) on Day 1. Extinction training (20 sounds without footshock) was done 1 hr and 24 hr after footshocks. Reinstatement was done on Day 3, or 10, or 20, or 30, by placing rat in a new context and delivering one footshock (0.8 mA, 3 s, no sound). Results showed that females were more responsive to extinction due to significant decreases in freezing behavior in comparison with males, while reinstatement had more effect to recall shock-related memory in males. Pain threshold was increased and extinction decreased it in both sexes. Locomotion was decreased in fear conditioning group in both sexes and in PTSD + extinction males, while it was not changed in PTSD + extinction females. Reinstatement on Day 3 decreased locomotion in males. Rearing was decreased and extinction restored it in both sexes. By contrast, reinstatement on Day 3 decreased rearing in males. In conclusion, we suggested that females are more responsive to extinction and less sensitive to reinstatement. On the contrary, males are sensitive to reinstatement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigated whether 221 undergraduates (123 males, 98 females) with varying levels of cannabis use displayed a conditioned place preference (CPP) for a virtual reality (VR) room that previously contained virtual cannabis stimuli compared to a neutral VR room that was not paired with cannabis cues. We hypothesized that cannabis-using participants (n = 180) would spend a greater amount of time in, report greater subjective enjoyment in, and explicitly prefer a VR room that was previously paired with virtual cannabis stimuli relative to a neutral room, while participants with nonuse (n = 41) would not. Overall, participants did not demonstrate an implicit or explicit CPP for a VR room that was previously paired with cannabis cues. Interestingly, however, participants with recent cannabis use (n = 41) exhibited a significant implicit CPP for the cannabis-cue-paired VR room, while participants with nonrecent cannabis use (n = 113) did not. Furthermore, relative to males with cannabis use (n = 93), females with cannabis use (n = 87) demonstrated a significant explicit CPP for the cannabis-cue-paired context as well as significantly greater cannabis cravings. These findings elucidate the need for further research on the role of acute cannabis intoxication, sex, and cue-induced cravings in modulating CPP for cannabis-associated contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The ability to engage in everyday tasks, such as walking, requires the integration of cognitive and motor processes. How these processes integrate may be discernable through the relation of brain activity patterns to behavioral performance, particularly in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), examination of which has been restricted because of the limitations in experimental design. We related behavior (cognition, walking) to brain activity, as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy, under dual-task conditions (cognition while walking) in healthy young adults. Our probe design enabled us to examine eight regions of interest across PFC and motor cortex to identify key areas related to behavior. Healthy young adults (N = 19) engaged in standing cognition (Serial 3 subtraction), single-task walking, and dual-task walking. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to identify regions associated with increases or decreases in activity under dual-task relative to the other conditions. We observed differences in brain activity patterns by task across multiple regions of interest, mostly in PFC. Specifically, more lateral regions were related to attention-demanding tasks, whereas motor tasks were related to relatively medial regions. Our results relate behavior to brain activity, as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy, under dual-task conditions. Our finding of relatively lateral PFC activity during attention-demanding tasks provides insights into behavioral and brain processes during experimental analogues of everyday activity, bringing us closer to understanding behavior-brain relations in the real world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP, ADCYAP1) is a highly conserved neuropeptide that plays essential roles in numerous physiological functions, and central PACAP signaling has been associated with mechanisms regulating stress-induced psychopathologies. PACAP binds to several receptor subtypes, including PAC1 (ADCYAP1R1), VPAC1 (VIPR1), and VPAC2 (VIPR2), to activate several signaling cascades that can alter neuronal excitability and enhance indices of neuroplasticity, and much of our prior work has suggested that the anxiogenic effects of bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) PACAP depend on the activation of PAC1 receptors. To complement our previous work that evaluated the roles of BNST PACAP expression and secretion in anxiety-related responses, we employed in the current work chemogenetic approaches in male PAC1-Ires-Cre mice to directly and specifically modulate the activities of BNST PAC1 receptor-expressing neurons. Inhibition of BNST PAC1 receptor neuron activity with clozapine-N-oxide significantly increased open arm exploration without reducing total locomotor activity; conversely, stimulating BNST PAC1 receptor function significantly reduced open arm exploratory activities. In sum, these data are consistent with our prior work suggesting a key role for BNST PACAP receptor activation in anxiety and stress; further, these observations importantly clarify the neural circuits involved in anxiety-like behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

A series of experiments tested the role of sex and cycling ovarian hormones in the renewal of conditioned freezing after either extinction or counterconditioning. In all experiments, conditioning occurred in Context A, response reduction (extinction or counterconditioning) occurred in Context B, and renewal occurred in a familiar yet neutral Context C. Experiment 1a compared renewal after extinction for male and female rats. Both groups demonstrated robust renewal. This finding was replicated in Experiment 1b, which also included a group of ovariectomized female rats to test a potential role of cycling ovarian hormones. Renewal was present and did not differ between groups. Experiment 2 extended these findings to examine renewal after aversive-to-appetitive counterconditioning. Once again, renewal did not differ between male and female rats (Experiment 2a), nor between male, intact female, and ovariectomized female rats (Experiment 2b). For all experiments, summation testing failed to detect differential context-U.S. associations between Contexts B and C. We discuss the role for cycling ovarian hormones in renewal, noting methodological differences with prior studies, and we also discuss how contexts can influence behavior during either extinction or counterconditioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) has been preliminarily investigated as a potential treatment for dementia. The degeneration of NBM cholinergic neurons is a pathological feature of many forms of dementia. Although NBM stimulation has been demonstrated to improve learning, the ideal parameters for NBM stimulation have not been elucidated. This study assesses the differential effects of varying stimulation patterns and duration on learning in a dementia rat model with cholinergic deficits. 192-IgG saporin (SAP) or Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline was injected into the NBM to produce dementia in rats. Next, all rats underwent unilateral implantation of a DBS electrode in the NBM. The experimental groups consisted of (a) normal, (b) untreated SAP-injected rats with cholinergic deficits, and (c) SAP rats receiving NBM DBS. The stimulation paradigms included testing different modes (tonic and burst) and durations (1 hr, 5 hr, and 24 hr/day) over 10 daily sessions. Memory was assessed using two established learning paradigms: novel object recognition and auditory operant chamber learning. Both normal and stimulated rats demonstrated improved performance in novel object recognition and auditory learning as compared to the unstimulated SAP group. The burst stimulation groups performed better than the tonic group. Increasing the daily stimulation duration to 24 hr did not further improve cognitive performance in an auditory recognition task and degraded the results on a novel object recognition task as compared with 5 hr. The present findings suggest that naturalistic NBM burst DBS may offer potential effective therapy for treating dementia and suggests potential strategies for the reevaluation of current human NBM stimulation paradigms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is critical for learning and decision making, but its organization in terms of anatomical connections to other brain areas is not well understood in humans. Here we used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and probabilistic tractography to characterize the cortical and subcortical white matter connections of the human OFC. We found widespread connectivity of the OFC with frontal and temporal cortices, anterior cingulate, insula, olfactory cortex, as well as the striatum, hippocampus, amygdala, and thalamic nuclei. We then used k-means clustering to parcellate the OFC into different subregions based on these connections, revealing a medial-lateral division with two clusters, and a separation into medial, lateral-anterior, and lateral-posterior subdivisions with three clusters. Higher order parcellations revealed more complex subdivisions mirroring cytoarchitectural boundaries of the primate OFC. Analysis of the white matter connectivity of the medial and lateral OFC clusters revealed differences in their connectivity patterns with frontal cortices, insula, olfactory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, as well as the striatum and several thalamic nuclei. In addition, lateral-anterior and lateral-posterior OFC clusters showed different connectivity strengths with several frontal cortices, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and the caudate. These findings suggest parallels between the anatomical organization of the human and macaque OFC and may help to elucidate how the OFC contributes to adaptive behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Individuals differ in sensitivity to the adverse consequences of their actions. We have shown that these differences can be linked to differences in correctly learning causal relationships between actions and their negative consequences. To further assess this, here we used a conditioned punishment task in 195 participants. Explicit punishment contingency information was provided before or after participants had experienced strong (40%) or weak (10%) punishment contingencies. We found the same phenotypes of human punishment learning reported previously (Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel et al., 2021; Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel et al., 2023). Early provision of punishment contingency information promoted punishment avoidance under strong punishment contingencies but was relatively ineffective under weak punishment contingencies. This persistent punishment insensitivity despite early contingency information was not due to habit learning or failure to understand the associative task structure. Rather, persistent insensitivity to punishment was due to a failure in integrating punishment contingency knowledge with action selection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

We have previously demonstrated that gonadally intact female rats become habitual following around 120 response-outcome (R-Os) exposures during operant training. This rapid development of habit does not occur in gonadally intact male rats, which remain goal-directed up to at least 320 R-Os. The present study sought to examine the effect of removing gonadal hormones on the acquisition and expression of goal-directed and habitual behaviors separately in both male and female rats. To accomplish this, separate experimental groups of adult Long-Evans rats were utilized, including intact and ovariectomized (OVX) females, as well as intact and castrated (CAST) males. All groups were trained to 240 R-Os, and one half of each experimental group was subjected to a reinforcer devaluation procedure, while the remaining half served as nondevalued controls. An extinction test was then used to determine habitual versus goal-directed behavior. Results found intact females trained to 240 R-Os showed habit and intact males trained to 240 R-Os showed goal-directed behavior. Results also found that ovariectomy disrupts habit in female rats, keeping them goal-directed at 240 R-Os, while castration in male rats produced habitual responding at 240 R-Os, thus effectively reversing the sex differences observed in intact rats at 240 R-Os. An additional experiment was done in OVX and CAST males trained to 160 R-Os to determine if gonadectomy altered goal/habit behavior earlier in instrumental learning. Results showed that both OVX females and CAST males were goal-directed at 160 R-Os. Overall, these results indicate the lack of ovarian hormones effectively delays habit in female rats, and lack of testicular hormones produces earlier habit in males. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Extinction is fundamental to adaptive behavior in that it allows organisms to alter previously conditioned behaviors based on the prevailing environmental contingencies. Extinguished responses, however, will renew when the conditioned stimulus is presented outside the extinction context. There has been some suggestion that renewal after extinction of appetitive conditioning is a sex-specific process, with only male rats showing renewal (e.g., Anderson & Petrovich, 2015, 2017, 2018). The purpose of the present experiments was to revisit the role of sex in appetitive renewal, in part because an earlier literature demonstrated renewal in experiments with only female rats (e.g., Brooks & Bouton, 1994). In three experiments, rats underwent appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in Context A, followed by extinction in Context B, and then within-subject renewal testing in both B and A. In Experiment 1a, renewal was present for both male and female rats. In Experiment 1b, the procedure included exposures to Context A during the extinction phase. Once again, renewal was observed in female rats. In Experiment 2, we assessed if cycling hormones contribute to renewal in female rats. To do so we compared intact female rats with ovariectomized female rats, and observed robust renewal in both groups. Our results support the notion that renewal is a general behavioral phenomenon, and is one reason why behavior change may be difficult to sustain (Bouton, 2014). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).