Postweaning isolation affects responses to incentive contrast in adulthood.

CUENYA, LUCAS; MUSTACA, ALBA; KAMENETZKY, GISELLE

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015 vol. 57 p. 177 - 188

0012-1630

Adolescence is a time involving a series of changes in the use of appetitive reinforcers like food, as well as neuroendocrine changes like those taking place in the mesolimbic dopamine function. Social isolation from postnatal day 21 to 36 leads to behavioral and neurophysiological alterations such as increased consumption of appetitive reinforcers. This paper analyzes the effect of adolescent isolation on the responses to a surprising shift in reinforcement during adulthood, in reinforcement devaluation, increase, and omission procedures using sucrose solutions as reinforcer. Adolescent isolation intensified the consumption response resulting from a reinforcement increase (i.e., greater positive contrast), but had no effect on the response to reinforcement devaluation and omission. The implications of this procedure are discussed as a model of certain psychiatric disorders, along with the underlying behavioral and neurochemical mechanisms.