Association for Behavior Analysis International

Impulsivity has been implicated in a number of disorders and maladaptive behaviors including pathological gambling, substance abuse, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, suicidality, and psychopathology in general. Serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) are two neurotransmitters that are well documented for their effects on impulsivity and their activity can be altered by other neurotransmitters systems, such as the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system can be manipulated by agonists such as delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as by drugs that alter the endocannabinoid system's own enzymatic regulatory system, such as cannabinoid enzyme inhibitors. The present study examines effects of two cannabinoid enzyme inhibitors whose effect on impulsivity is relatively unexplored. Eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a discrete-trials delay-discounting procedure and given a range of acute doses of URB597 and JZL195. Effects of drug administration will be assessed using several measures of impulsivity, including percent of larger-reinforcer choice, indifference points, and area under the curve. Changes in measures of impulsivity following drug administration would indicate involvement of the endocannabinoid system and suggest new potential targets for treatment of impulse-control disorders.

Frequent and uncontrollable vomiting can cause substantial damage to an individual?s health. In this current case, the individual suffered from significant weight loss and was prescribed a feeding tube for all meals, hydration and medication. The feeding provided sufficient nutrients to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Over a four-year period, multiple behavioral interventions, (Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior, Differential Reinforcement of Diminishing Rates, Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior, Over-Correction, Blocking and Inpatient Treatment at Kennedy Krieger Institute) and behavioral pharmacology interventions (Haldol, Ativan, Propranolol, Atarax, Sancuso, Cogentin, etc.). These interventions did not demonstrate significant reduction of vomiting behavior. The effects of the behavioral treatments eventually subsided or evoked high intensity aggressive behaviors. The most recent treatment, electroconvulsive therapy, although controversial has demonstrated a reduction in the vomiting behavior. Prior to electroconvulsive therapy, rates of vomiting ranged from 139 to 327 and averaged 229 per day. Electroconvulsive therapy was implemented for seven weeks, which included 18 treatments scheduled for three times per week. The most recent data for vomiting rates showed a range of 1 to 14 and averaged 7.9 per day. This case supports electroconvulsive therapy as an effective treatment for life-threatening vomiting behavior.

The glutamate hypothesis proposes that NMDA receptor hypofunction underlies cognitive and perhaps other schizophrenic symptoms. The present study used the odor span task to assess the effects of NMDA antagonists on remembering multiple stimuli in rodents. This task uses an incrementing non-matching-to-sample procedure in which responses to a new olfactory stimulus are reinforced on each trial, whereas responses to previously presented stimuli are not. NMDA antagonists have been associated with memory impairments in a variety of animal models, however, there are inconsistencies across different NMDA antagonists and tasks used. The current study compared the acute effects of phencyclidine, ketamine, and the novel NMDA antagonist methoxetamine on responding in the odor span task and a simple discrimination control. Phencyclidine and methoxetamine impaired odor span accuracy at doses that did not impair simple discrimination in most rats, however effects of ketamine were less selective. Within-session analyses indicated that effects of phencyclidine and methoxetamine depended on the number of stimuli to remember, i.e., impairment only occurred when the memory load was relatively high. These effects of phencyclidine and methoxetamine were consistent with the hypothesis that NMDA antagonists may interfere with working memory, but the basis for less selective results with ketamine are unclear.

Dependence on cannabis can result in withdrawal following abstinence, which increases the likelihood of relapse. The primary psychoactive component of cannabis is δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and behavioral models of THC withdrawal can aid in identifying therapeutics to attenuate withdrawal symptoms. However, the behavioral profile of THC withdrawal has been primarily focused on rodent-specific behaviors (e.g., paw tremors) limiting applicability to humans. The current study used an alternating fixed-ratio (FR) task to assess perseverative responding associated with THC withdrawal in male and female mice. Within each session, an FR-3 schedule alternated between two nose-poke operanda every five reinforcers for a total of 12 alternations per session. Following baseline stability, mice were administered THC (10 mg/kg) or vehicle (n = 9) every 12 h for 6 days. THC withdrawal was precipitated using the selective CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonist rimonabant (SR141716A; 2 mg/kg). Precipitated THC withdrawal increased perseverative errors, with the error being localized in the first ratio after a left/right alternation, suggesting an attentional deficit during withdrawal. These results extend the behavioral profile of THC withdrawal in rodents to include increased perseveration. Implications of these results suggest THC withdrawal may produce deficits in attention and motivation, as observed in clinical populations.

Statistical inference (including interval estimation and hypothesis testing) is commonly used in the analysis of behavioral data. As with many other fields, statistical approaches for these analyses traditionally use classical methods. Interpreting classical intervals and p-values correctly can be bothersome and counterintuitive. For example, a reported confidence interval for the rate of delay discounting does not have a 95% chance of including the true but unknown discounting rate. Similarly, a p-value of 0.04 does not imply that the probability that the null hypothesis is true is 4%. The correct interpretations are an artifact of the classical (i.e. frequentist) assumption that parameters of interest (e.g. discounting rate) and hypotheses are fixed but unknown quantities. By contrast, Bayesian methods treat data, parameters, and hypotheses as random quantities and use rules of conditional probability to update beliefs about parameters (e.g. discounting rate) given observed study data. Thus, Bayesian credible intervals make direct probabilistic statements about the range on which the discounting rate likely exists, and Bayesian hypothesis tests provide the probability that competing hypotheses are true. To illustrate the use of Bayesian methods on behavioral data, this work re-analyzes data from a recent delay discounting study of community controls, heavy smokers, and alcohol- and cocaine-dependent individuals to assess the impact of non-, mono-, dual-, and trisubstance use. The re-analysis methods are compared with the original analysis for interpretation, and similarities and differences in conclusion are discussed.

Research from neuroscience and pharmacology has led to discoveries about the processes within the organism that are involved with reinforcement of operant behavior. Such findings, to name a few, include information about "motivation", "reward centers", and how various chemicals affect operant behavior under various contexts. These areas of science have complemented the field of behavior analysis by furthering knowledge about potential processes within the organism that influence environment-behavior relations in both human and non-human animals. Each science approaches this topic using a different lens and for different reasons. However, exchange between the fields has produced many advanced discoveries. This poster describes the rich history of the intersection of neuroscience, pharmacology, and behavior analysis and samples some key findings within those intersectional fields. Future neuroscientific and pharmacological directions within behavior analysis are discussed.

For some time, behavioral variability has been proposed as a dimension of operant behavior that is vulnerable to environmental manipulations. For example, it has been demonstrated that variability of 4-lever press sequences can be affected by dopamine drugs such as amphetamines and SKF-38393. In the present experiment, we tested the effects of over-the-counter energy drinks on variability of rats sequential responding. Four rats were trained on a procedure similar to that of Neuringer (1991) and Pesek et al. (2011) where sequences of four level presses were reinforced if they were novel compared to the past eight response sequences, referred to as a lag 8 condition. Preliminary training proceeded systematically and will now be followed by access to 4 different doses of red bull in a counterbalanced order. We plan to explore the effects of OTC energy drinks on variability measured by both U (entropy), and a ratio of reinforced sequences.