Abstract
Impulsive choice is related to substance use disorders, obesity, and other behaviors that negatively impact human health. Reducing impulsive choice may prove beneficial in ameliorating these maladaptive behaviors. Preclinical research in rats indicates that one reliable method for producing large and lasting reductions in impulsive choice is delay-exposure (DE) training. In all six of the prior DE-training experiments, rats were given extensive experience (~ 120 training sessions) with a delayed reinforcement contingency. The present experiment evaluated if similar large and lasting reductions in impulsive choice could be achieved with less training. The duration of DE training between groups of male Wistar rats was 0 sessions (training ended after a lever-pressing acquisition criterion was met), 30, 60, or 120 sessions. Comparison groups were given the same durations of training with immediate reinforcement. A post-training assessment of impulsive choice was completed using an increasing-delay procedure. For rats assigned to the 60-session condition, impulsive choice was reassessed at a 120-day follow-up. DE training reduced impulsive choice but, contrary to expectation, reductions in impulsive choice did not increase with DE-training duration (no significant training-duration by group interaction). Importantly, 60 sessions of DE training produced reductions in impulsive choice that were comparable to prior published findings and this effect remained significant at the 120-day follow-up. Procedural elements that may be responsible for the DE-training effect, and how they could be improved in future experiments, are discussed.
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Data are available via the Open Science Framework and can be accessed via the following https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/C7BAM..
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Funding
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH): R21 DA042174-01 and R03 DA044927-01, awarded to the last author (G. J. Madden). Jillian M. Rung’s time was partially supported by the University of Florida Substance Abuse Training Center in Public Health from the National Institute on Drug Abuse under award number T32 DA035167. The content is solely the responsibility of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
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None of the authors have any real or potential conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with organizations or pharmaceutical/biomedical companies that may inappropriately influence the research and interpretation of the findings.
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Procedures were conducted in accordance with protocols approved by the Institution of Animal Care and Use Committee at Utah State University (IACUC protocols 2602 and 2232).
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Portions of this manuscript were previously reported in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy awarded to the first author (C. R. Renda). Portions of the data were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Denver, CO (May 2017). Some of the data have been previously published (Peck et al. 2019).
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Renda, C.R., Rung, J.M., Peck, S. et al. Reducing impulsive choice VII: effects of duration of delay-exposure training. Anim Cogn 24, 11–21 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01412-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01412-0