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RationaleAlcohol use disorder remains a leading cause of preventable deaths, and current treatments have limited efficacy. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists can reduce alcohol drinking in preclinical studies, but mechanisms are still not fully understood, and data in female subjects are scarce.ObjectivesTo assess whether the GLP-1 receptor agonist exendin-4 could decrease alcohol-seeking behavior in the absence of alcohol consumption or intoxication, to compare the potency and efficacy of exendin-4 in the reduction of alcohol seeking vs. alcohol taking, and to compare effects between male and female mice.MethodsMale and female C57BL/6J mice were trained to self-administer 20% alcohol under an FR 1 schedule of reinforcement. After extinction, systemic exendin-4 (saline, 1.8, and 3.2 μg/kg) was tested in cue-induced reinstatement of alcohol seeking. Effects of exendin-4 on alcohol self-administration were tested in a separate group.ResultsExendin-4 suppressed reinstatement of alcohol seeking to extinction levels, at both doses, in the male mice, but had no effect in the female mice. Both doses of exendin-4 also significantly decreased alcohol self-administration in male mice; females again showed less pronounced effects.ConclusionsIn male mice, exendin-4 appeared more effective at suppressing alcohol seeking in the absence of alcohol relative to alcohol self-administration, consistent with modulation of alcohol reward or inhibitory control, rather than satiety or aversive effects of alcohol. We saw marked sex differences with less effect of exendin-4 in female mice, and it will be important to include both sexes in further investigations into GLP-1 receptor agonists. Rationale: Alcohol use disorder remains a leading cause of preventable deaths, and current treatments have limited efficacy. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists can reduce alcohol drinking in preclinical studies, but mechanisms are still not fully understood, and data in female subjects are scarce. Objectives: To assess whether the GLP-1 receptor agonist exendin-4 could decrease alcohol-seeking behavior in the absence of alcohol consumption or intoxication, to compare the potency and efficacy of exendin-4 in the reduction of alcohol seeking vs. alcohol taking, and to compare effects between male and female mice. Methods: Male and female C57BL/6J mice were trained to self-administer 20% alcohol under an FR 1 schedule of reinforcement. After extinction, systemic exendin-4 (saline, 1.8, and 3.2 μg/kg) was tested in cue-induced reinstatement of alcohol seeking. Effects of exendin-4 on alcohol self-administration were tested in a separate group. Results: Exendin-4 suppressed reinstatement of alcohol seeking to extinction levels, at both doses, in the male mice, but had no effect in the female mice. Both doses of exendin-4 also significantly decreased alcohol self-administration in male mice; females again showed less pronounced effects. Conclusions: In male mice, exendin-4 appeared more effective at suppressing alcohol seeking in the absence of alcohol relative to alcohol self-administration, consistent with modulation of alcohol reward or inhibitory control, rather than satiety or aversive effects of alcohol. We saw marked sex differences with less effect of exendin-4 in female mice, and it will be important to include both sexes in further investigations into GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Social rewards are fundamental to survival and overall health. Several studies suggest that adequate social stimuli during early life are critical for developing appropriate socioemotional and cognitive skills, whereas adverse social experiences negatively affect the proper development of brain and behavior, by increasing the susceptibility to develop neuropsychiatric conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social interactions, and their rewarding components in particular, is an important challenge of current neuroscience research. In this context, preclinical research has a crucial role: Animal models allow to investigate the neurobiological aspects of social reward in order to shed light on possible neurochemical alterations causing aberrant social reward processing in neuropsychiatric diseases, and they allow to test the validity and safety of innovative therapeutic strategies. Here, we discuss preclinical research that has investigated the rewarding properties of two forms of social interaction that occur in different phases of the lifespan of mammals, that is, mother–infant interaction and social interactions with peers, by focusing on the main neurotransmitter systems mediating their rewarding components. Together, the research performed so far helped to elucidate the mechanisms of social reward and its psychobiological components throughout development, thus increasing our understanding of the neurobiological substrates sustaining social functioning in health conditions and social dysfunction in major psychiatric disorders. (Figure presented.).

The search for safe and efficient chronic pain treatments is dampened by the lack of reliable models that faithfully reproduce current pharmacological treatments for chronic spontaneous pain in humans. Preclinical models often assess the antinociceptive efficacy of non-contingent pharmacological treatments evaluated in the short-term. Here, we provide a protocol of contingent operant self-medication in mice, which allows the estimation of spontaneous pain relief and drug abuse liability in models of persistent pain. This paradigm requires preliminary habituation and animal handling, followed by training of mice in operant conditioning boxes, to allow subsequent analgesic drug self-administration. After the initial acquisition of food-maintained operant behavior, a chronic pain sensitization is induced. Posterior intravenous jugular catheterization and coupling of operant conditioning boxes to perfusion pumps allow quantification of operant responding for intravenous drug self-administration. All mice show an initial operant drug self-administration behavior associated with the previous food-maintained operant training. This initial operant responding is extinguished after administration of ineffective treatments, but continues when the compounds have analgesic efficacy or intrinsic reinforcing properties. The identification of a significant drug self-administration selectively expressed in mice exposed to the chronic pain condition is indicative of analgesic drug effects, whereas persistent self-administration in control mice is indicative of abuse liability. The present protocol provides the behavioral and surgical procedures needed to assess spontaneous pain relief and potential for abuse of pharmacological treatments, through contingent analgesic self-medication in mice. This work was supported by the European Comission [NeuroPain, FP7-602891-2], the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848068 [QSPainRelief, H2020-SC1-2019-2-RTD-848068], the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad-MINECO (#SAF2017-84060-R- AEI/FEDER-UE), the Spanish Instituto de Salud Carlos III, RETICS-RTA (#RD12/0028/0023), the Generalitat de Catalunya, AGAUR (#2017 SGR-669), ICREA-Acadèmia (#2015) and the Spanish Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas (#PNSD- 2017I068) to R.M., Fundació La Marató-TV3 (#2016/20-30) and Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas of the Spanish Ministry of Health (#PNSD-2019I006) to E.M-G. The methodology described was previously used in Bura et al. (2013, 2018) and Cabañero et al. (2020, doi: 10.7554/eLife.55582). Authors also want to thank E. Senabre and R. Martín for their critics and technical support.

Feeding is critical for survival, and disruption in the mechanisms that govern food intake underlies disorders such as obesity and anorexia nervosa. It is important to understand both food intake and food motivation to reveal mechanisms underlying feeding disorders. Operant behavioral testing can be used to measure the motivational component to feeding, but most food intake monitoring systems do not measure operant behavior. Here, we present a new solution for monitoring both food intake and motivation in rodent home-cages: the Feeding Experimentation Device version 3 (FED3). FED3 measures food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages, enabling longitudinal studies of feeding behavior with minimal experimenter intervention. It has a programmable output for synchronizing behavior with optogenetic stimulation or neural recordings. Finally, FED3 design files are open-source and freely available, allowing researchers to modify FED3 to suit their needs., eLife digest Obesity and anorexia nervosa are two health conditions related to food intake. Researchers studying these disorders in animal models need to both measure food intake and assess behavioural factors: that is, why animals seek and consume food. Measuring an animal’s food intake is usually done by weighing food containers. However, this can be inaccurate due to the small amount of food that rodents eat. As for studying feeding motivation, this can involve calculating the number of times an animal presses a lever to receive a food pellet. These tests are typically conducted in hour-long sessions in temporary testing cages, called operant boxes. Yet, these tests only measure a brief period of a rodent's life. In addition, it takes rodents time to adjust to these foreign environments, which can introduce stress and may alter their feeding behaviour. To address this, Matikainen-Ankney, Earnest, Ali et al. developed a device for monitoring food intake and feeding behaviours around the clock in rodent home cages with minimal experimenter intervention. This ‘Feeding Experimentation Device’ (FED3) features a pellet dispenser and two ‘nose-poke’ sensors to measure total food intake, as well as motivation for and learning about food rewards. The battery-powered, wire-free device fits in standard home cages, enabling long-term studies of feeding behaviour with minimal intervention from investigators and less stress on the animals. This means researchers can relate data to circadian rhythms and meal patterns, as Matikainen-Ankney did here. Moreover, the device software is open-source so researchers can customise it to suit their experimental needs. It can also be programmed to synchronise with other instruments used in animal experiments, or across labs running the same behavioural tasks for multi-site studies. Used in this way, it could help improve reproducibility and reliability of results from such studies. In summary, Matikainen-Ankney et al. have presented a new practical solution for studying food-related behaviours in mice and rats. Not only could the device be useful to researchers, it may also be suitable to use in educational settings such as teaching labs and classrooms.

Value-based decision making relies on distributed neural systems that weigh the benefits of actions against the cost required to obtain a given outcome. Perturbations of these systems are thought to underlie abnormalities in action selection seen across many neuropsychiatric disorders. Genetic tools in mice provide a promising opportunity to explore the cellular components of these systems and their molecular foundations. However, few tasks have been designed that robustly characterize how individual mice integrate differential reward benefits and cost in their selection of actions. Here we present a forced-choice, two-alternative task in which each option is associated with a specific reward outcome, and unique operant contingency. We employed global and individual trial measures to assess the choice patterns and behavioral flexibility of mice in response to differing "choice benefits" (modeled as varying reward magnitude ratios) and different modalities of "choice cost" (modeled as either increasing repetitive motor output to obtain reward or increased delay to reward delivery). We demonstrate that (1) mouse choice is highly sensitive to the relative benefit of outcomes; (2) choice costs are heavily discounted in environments with large discrepancies in relative reward; (3) divergent cost modalities are differentially integrated into action selection; (4) individual mouse sensitivity to reward benefit is correlated with sensitivity to reward costs. These paradigms reveal stable individual animal differences in value-based action selection, thereby providing a foundation for interrogating the neural circuit and molecular pathophysiology of goal-directed dysfunction.

Aesthetic reactions occur when cognitive and affective elements interact, in diverse arts. Affective elements result from past Pavlovian conditioning events and other sources. Compounding raises these effects to the level of aesthetic reactions. Properties of domains in which aesthetic reactions occur are identified. Cognitive ability is selected phylogenetically by the discernment of beauty. Aesthetic reactions help maintain competencies like language, conceptualization, and abstract thinking.

Operant behavioral tasks for animals have long been used to probe the function of multiple brain regions (i.e., understanding the role of dopamine in electrical brain stimulation reward [1], or determining the rewarding properties of feeding oriented brain pathways [2]). The recent development of tools and techniques has opened the door to refine the answer to these same questions with a much higher degree of specificity and accuracy, both in biological and spatial-temporal terms [3], [4]. A variety of systems designed to test operant behavior are now commercially available, but have prohibitive costs. Here, we provide a low-cost alternative to a nose poke system for mice. Adapting a freely available sketch for ARDUINO boards, in combination with an in-house built PVC box and inexpensive electronic material we constructed a four-port nose poke system that detects and counts port entries. To verify the applicability and validity of our system we tested the behavior of DAT-CRE transgenic mice injected with an adeno-associated virus to express ChannelRhodopsin 2 in the Ventral tegmental area (VTA) and used the BNC output to drive a blue laser coupled to a fiber implanted above the VTA. Over 6 days, mice perform as it has been reported previously [5] exhibiting a remarkable preference for the port that triggers optogenetic stimulation of VTA dopamine neurons. • We provide a low cost alternative to commercially available nose poke system. • Our custom made apparatus is open source and TTL compatible. • We validate our system with optogenetic self-stimulation of dopamine neurons.

Cocaine administration has been shown to produce immediate positive (rewarding) and subsequent negative (anxiogenic) effects in humans and animals. These dual and opposing affective responses have been more difficult to demonstrate with administration of methamphetamine (meth). While animal studies have reliably demonstrated the positive reinforcing effects of the drug, reports of negative aftereffects following acute exposure have been few in number and contradictory in nature. The current research was devised to assess the effects of acute meth using a runway model of self-administration that is uniquely sensitive to both the positive and negative effects of a drug reinforcer in the same animal on the same trial. Male rats were allowed to traverse a straight alley once a day for 16 consecutive days/trials where entry into the goal box resulted in a single IV injection of meth (0.25, 0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/inj.). The chosen doses were confirmed to be psychoactive as they produced dose-dependent increases in motoric/locomotor activation in these same subjects. The results demonstrated a U-shaped dose-response curve for the reinforcing effects of meth in that the intermediate dose group (0.5 mg/kg) produced the strongest approach behavior in the runway. Unlike other psychomotor stimulants, like cocaine, animals running for IV meth exhibited no evidence of any significant approach-avoidance behaviors reflective of the drug's negative anxiogenic effects. These results suggest that the abuse potential for meth is likely higher than for other shorter-acting psychomotor stimulants and reaffirms the utility of the runway procedure as a screen for a substance's abuse potential.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a severe and dose-limiting side effect of cancer treatment that affects millions of cancer survivors throughout the world and current treatment options are extremely limited by their side effects. Cannabinoids are highly effective in suppressing pain symptoms of chemotherapy-induced and other peripheral neuropathies but their widespread use is limited by central nervous system (CNS)-mediated side effects. Here, we tested one compound from a series of recently developed synthetic peripherally restricted cannabinoids (PRCBs) in a rat model of cisplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy. Results show that local or systemic administration of 4-{2-[-(1E)-1[(4-propylnaphthalen-1-yl)methylidene]-1H-inden-3-yl]ethyl}morpholine (PrNMI) dose-dependently suppressed CIPN mechanical and cold allodynia. Orally administered PrNMI also dose-dependently suppressed CIPN allodynia symptoms in both male and female rats without any CNS side effects. Co-administration with selective cannabinoid receptor subtype blockers revealed that PrNMI's anti-allodynic effects are mediated by CB1 receptor (CB1R) activation. Expression of CB2Rs was reduced in dorsal root ganglia from CIPN rats, whereas expression of CB1Rs and various endocannabinoid synthesizing and metabolizing enzymes was unaffected. Daily PrNMI treatment of CIPN rats for two weeks showed a lack of appreciable tolerance to PrNMI's anti-allodynic effects. In an operant task which reflects cerebral processing of pain, PrNMI also dose-dependently suppressed CIPN pain behaviors. Our results demonstrate that PRCBs exemplified by PrNMI may represent a viable option for the treatment of CIPN pain symptoms.

The current theories of animal personality are based on the observation that individual variation in behavior and physiology appears to be consistent across contexts. Rats of the Roman selection lines have been originally selected for differences in shuttle-box behavior. Besides differences in active avoidance, these animals differ more generally in coping style. Roman high avoidance (RHA) rats show high levels of active avoidance, whereas Roman low avoidance (RLA) rats tend to respond with a more passive (i.e. freezing) response. Based on the two tier model of coping styles, we hypothesized that RHA rats would show high levels of offensive behavior and are more impulsive compared to RLA rats. We characterized animals in a two-way active avoidance task on five consecutive days. Thereafter animals were tested for their level of offensive aggression and impulsive behavior. The level of offensive aggression was examined in a standard resident-intruder paradigm. Furthermore, we tested aspects of impulsivity in an unpredictable operant conditioning paradigm (variable interval-15 schedule) for food reinforcement and during extinction of lever press behavior. We show that RHA rats are indeed characterized by high levels of two-way active avoidance in a shuttle-box paradigm. Surprisingly, the level of offensive aggression was higher in RLA compared to RHA rats. Consistent with the coping style interpretation, the number of lever presses in the VI-15 schedule for food reinforcement was higher in RHA rats compared to RLA rats. During a session of frustrating non-reward, RHA rats were more persistent. Taken together, results of the two-way active avoidance task and VI-15 performance in rats of the Roman selection lines fit with the two tier model of coping styles. Unexpectedly, the level of offensive aggression does not match with this model.

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in a wide range of executive cognitive functions, including reward evaluation, decision-making, memory extinction, mood, and task switching. Manipulation of the mPFC has been shown to alter food intake and food reward valuation, but whether exclusive stimulation of mPFC pyramidal neurons, which form the principle output of the mPFC, is sufficient to mediate food rewarded instrumental behavior is unknown. We sought to determine the behavioral consequences of manipulating mPFC output by exciting pyramidal neurons in mouse mPFC during performance of a panel of behavioral assays, focusing on food reward. We found that increasing mPFC pyramidal cell output using Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) enhanced performance in instrumental food reward assays that assess food seeking behavior, while sparing effects in affect and food intake. Specifically, activation of mPFC pyramidal neurons enhanced operant responding for food reward, reinstatement of palatable food seeking, and suppression of impulsive responding for food reward. Conversely, activation of mPFC pyramidal neurons had no effect on unconditioned food intake, social interaction, or behavior in an open field. Furthermore, we found that behavioral outcome is influenced by the degree of mPFC activation, with a low drive sufficient to enhance operant responding and a higher drive required to alter impulsivity. Additionally, we provide data demonstrating that DREADD stimulation involves a nitric oxide synthase dependent pathway, similar to endogenous muscarinic M3 receptor stimulation, a finding that provides novel mechanistic insight into an increasingly widespread method of remote neuronal control.

Antecedentes Entre el 20% y el 40% de las mujeres sufren depresión durante el embarazo o posparto. Según la OMS en 2020 la prevalencia de depresión posparto en mujeres representará alrededor del 5,7% de la carga total de morbilidad. OBJETIVOS Identificar la efectividad de las intervenciones psicosociales en las mujeres embarazadas durante el periodo antenatal y posnatal para prevenir el riesgo de depresión posparto. METODOLOGÍA Se realizó la búsqueda en el mes de enero de 2015 en MEDLINE, vía PubMed. Se seleccionaron todas aquellas revisiones sistemáticas publicadas en los últimos cinco años. La calidad metodológica fue evaluada a través de las herramientas disponibles en la plataforma digital www.lecturacritica.com RESULTADOS Se identificaron 587 referencias de las que una fue incluida. La calidad metodológica del estudio fue alta. Las intervenciones psicosociales como el apoyo emocional de sus madres, las llamadas telefónicas y las visitas a domicilio individualizadas tras el nacimiento del bebé, aumentan el bienestar de la mujer y actúan de forma preventiva ante la depresión posparto. Por otro lado, algunos estudios muestran cierta efectividad ante la combinación entre las intervenciones citadas anteriormente. La psicoterapia interpersonal también puede ayudar en la prevención de la depresión posparto. CONCLUSIONES Las intervenciones psicosociales centradas en un apoyo individualizado adicional al comienzo del periodo del posparto son eficaces para prevenir la depresión posparto. Las pruebas científicas disponibles sobre la efectividad de otras intervenciones psicosociales son aún insuficientes. BACKGROUND Between 20% and 40 % of women experience depression during pregnancy or postpartum. According to the WHO in 2020 the prevalence of postpartum depression in women represents around 5.7% of the total disease burden. OBJECTIVES Identify the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in pregnant women during antenatal and postnatal period to prevent the risk of postpartum depression. METHODOLOGY The search was conducted in January of 2015 in MEDLINE via PubMed. We selected all the systematic reviews published in the last five years. Methodological quality was evaluated using the tools available in the digital platform www.lecturacritica.com RESULTS Five hundred and eighty-seven records were identified which selected one are corresponding to a single study. The methodological quality of the study was high. Psychosocial interventions such as telephone calls and individualized home visits after childbirth increase the welfare of women and act preventively against postpartum depression. On the other hand, some studies show some effectiveness to the combination of interventions mentioned above. Interpersonal psychotherapy can also help in preventing postpartum depression. CONCLUSIONS Psychosocial interventions focused on an additional individualized support to early postpartum period are an effective preventive intervention. The available scientific evidence on the effectiveness of other psychosocial interventions is still insufficient. Grau en Infermeria

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) This study traces the description of Paradox as a therapeutic measure by numerous therapists since Erikson first used the paradox in the form of positive reframing during the thirties. Major theoretical definitions of the paradoxical communication are reviewed. The therapeutic Paradoxical intervention is categorized into a series of relatively circumscribed intervention strategies, each of which shares theoretical similarities but emphasizes different aspects of the paradox. The paradoxical intervention has been utilized in a number of ways depending on the epistemological premise of the therapist, and the theory of change accepted within this epistemology. The study initially discusses the paradoxical intervention as designed as an isolated intervention within a linear cause and effect paradigm. Within a context of power and control, the paradoxical intervention was used by therapists of the Mental Research Institute (Watzlavick et a1. 1977) to emphasize and maintain the hierarchical distinction between the therapists and patient. The Strategic approaches including those of Fisch, Weakland and Segal (1982) Haley (1963) and Papp (1979) involve direct and planned influence of persons and are based, in large part, on an analysis of the power relationships that they aim to modify (Golann 1988.) According to Bogdan (1982) the Milan approach even with its systemic circular approach, involves the use of the paradoxical intervention as a means of simultaneously influencing the behavior of all the members of a family. The paradoxical intervention is discussed within a circular cybernetic paradigm following De Shazer's (1982) explanation of a therapeutic intervention. De Shazer (1982) sees the paradoxical intervention as one type of intervention within a pattern of isomorphic interventions, and stresses the necessity for this intervention to follow the family interaction patterns. De Shazer developed the concept of Isomorphism and used this as a prescriptive tool for guiding the therapists efforts to promote change, by intervening from a different angle, based on the description of family patterns. Where the family's interactive patterns are paradoxical in nature, a paradoxical intervention would be appropriate. With this emphasis on a more encompassing pattern of interventions based on patterns of client-family interactions, the significance of the feedback processes within the relationship between therapist and client in the design and utilization of the paradoxical intervention is stressed. The study concludes that the psychotherapeutic relationship between the therapist system and the client system can be seen to contextualize and provide meaning to the paradoxical intervention.

The anhedonia-like behaviors following about 1-week withdrawal from morphine were examined in the present study. Male rats were pretreated with either a binge-like morphine paradigm or daily saline injection for 5 days. Three types of natural reward were used, food reward (2.5, 4, 15, 30, 40, and 60% sucrose solutions), social reward (male rat) and sexual reward (estrous female rat). For each type of natural stimulus, consummatory behavior and motivational behaviors under varied testing conditions were investigated. The results showed that the morphine-treated rats significantly reduced their consumption of 2.5% sucrose solution during the 1-h consumption testing and their operant responding for 15, 30, and 40% sucrose solutions under a fixed ratio 1 (FR1) schedule. However, performance under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule increased in morphine-treated rats reinforced with 60% sucrose solution, but not in those reinforced with sucrose concentrations lower than 60%. Pretreatment with morphine significantly decreased the male rats' ejaculation frequency (EF) during the 1-h copulation testing, and impaired the maintenance of appetitive motivations to sexual and social stimuli under a free-approach condition. Moreover, the morphine-treated rats demonstrated a diminished motivation to approach social stimulus in the effort-based appetitive behavior test but showed a remarkable increase in motivation to approach sexual stimulus in the risky appetitive behavior test. These results demonstrated some complex motivated behaviors following about 1 week of morphine withdrawal: (1) The anhedonia-like behavior was consistently found in animals withdrawn from morphine. However, for a given reward, there was often a dissociation of the consummatory behaviors from the motivational behaviors, and whether the consummatory or the motivational anhedonia-like behaviors could be discovered heavily depended on the type and magnitude of the reward and the type of testing task; (2) These anhedonia-like behaviors coexisted with a craving for the high-incentive reward which was evidenced by the increased PR performance for the 60% sucrose solution and the heightened risky appetitive behavior for the sexual stimulus. The craving for the high-incentive reward alongside with the impaired inhibitory control in drug-withdrawn subjects might form one of psychological mechanisms underlying drug relapse after withdrawal.

During development, animals can spontaneously discover action-outcome pairings enabling subsequent achievement of their goals. We present a biologically plausible embodied model addressing key aspects of this process. The biomimetic model core comprises the basal ganglia and its loops through cortex and thalamus. We incorporate reinforcement learning (RL) with phasic dopamine supplying a sensory prediction error, signalling "surprising" outcomes. Phasic dopamine is used in a cortico-striatal learning rule which is consistent with recent data. We also hypothesized that objects associated with surprising outcomes acquire "novelty salience" contingent on the predicability of the outcome. To test this idea we used a simple model of prediction governing the dynamics of novelty salience and phasic dopamine. The task of the virtual robotic agent mimicked an in vivo counterpart (Gancarz et al., 2011) and involved interaction with a target object which caused a light flash, or a control object which did not. Learning took place according to two schedules. In one, the phasic outcome was delivered after interaction with the target in an unpredictable way which emulated the in vivo protocol. Without novelty salience, the model was unable to account for the experimental data. In the other schedule, the phasic outcome was reliably delivered and the agent showed a rapid increase in the number of interactions with the target which then decreased over subsequent sessions. We argue this is precisely the kind of change in behavior required to repeatedly present representations of context, action and outcome, to neural networks responsible for learning action-outcome contingency. The model also showed cortico-striatal plasticity consistent with learning a new action in basal ganglia. We conclude that action learning is underpinned by a complex interplay of plasticity and stimulus salience, and that our model contains many of the elements for biological action discovery to take place.

Visual Abstract, The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) is considered a powerful modulator of sensory system organization and function in a wide range of animals. The olfactory system is innervated by midbrain 5-HT neurons into both its primary and secondary odor-processing stages. Facilitated by this circuitry, 5-HT and its receptors modulate olfactory system function, including odor information input to the olfactory bulb. It is unknown, however, whether the olfactory system requires 5-HT for even its most basic behavioral functions. To address this question, we established a conditional genetic approach to specifically target adult brain tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (Tph2), encoding the rate-limiting enzyme in brain 5-HT synthesis, and nearly eliminate 5-HT from the mouse forebrain. Using this novel model, we investigated the behavior of 5-HT–depleted mice during performance in an olfactory go/no-go task. Surprisingly, the near elimination of 5-HT from the forebrain, including the olfactory bulbs, had no detectable effect on the ability of mice to perform the odor-based task. Tph2-targeted mice not only were able to learn the task, but also had levels of odor acuity similar to those of control mice when performing coarse odor discrimination. Both groups of mice spent similar amounts of time sampling odors during decision-making. Furthermore, odor reversal learning was identical between 5-HT–depleted and control mice. These results suggest that 5-HT neurotransmission is not necessary for the most essential aspects of olfaction, including odor learning, discrimination, and certain forms of cognitive flexibility.

M.A. Tho history of education for black learners with learning disabilities and education support services in South Africa (S.A), like much of the history of this country reflect massive deprivation and lack of provision for the majority of people. These inequalities can be ascribed to those social, economic and political factors which characterised the history of South African society in the past (Department of Education, 1997) . It becomes evident that the educational system, is a system which has been designed for the majority of learners and is therefore insensitive to those who learn differently. An inability to access services, if they do exist, essentially means that these children have nowhere to go for assistance.

Correspondência verbal pode ser definida como a relação entre o comportamento verbal e o comportamento não-verbal de um indivíduo. As pesquisas encontradas na literatura sobre correspondência verbal utilizaram-se de treinos de correspondência, sem se preocupar em observar se a correspondência já existe naturalmente, sem necessidade de treino. Este estudo teve como objetivo descrever os comportamentos de correspondência de mães e filhos em uma situação natural no contexto médico. Sete díades mães-criança (crianças com idades entre cinco a oito anos) e uma médica participaram da pesquisa. Com cada díade, houve três momentos: 1) entrevista com mãe e criança separadamente antes do exame médico, 2) filmagem do exame e 3) entrevista após o exame com mãe e criança, separadas. Os resultados mostraram que, dentre os comportamentos categorizados, as crianças apresentaram em sua maioria correspondência verbal total, dizer-fazer-dizer (33,33%). Já as mães tiveram a maioria de seus comportamentos categorizados como não-correspondência (35,13%). A maior parte das mães também não instruiu seus filhos a como se comportar no contexto médico, e as mães que instruíram, apresentaram regras incompletas. Variáveis como idade, nível sócio-econômico, escolaridade, história de vida devem ser melhor investigadas quanto à influência na ocorrência da correspondência verbal natural. Conclui-se sobre a importância da emissão de correspondências verbais para o contexto da saúde, pois estas estão relacionadas a autocontrole e autoconhecimento. Verbal correspondence can be defined as the relationship between verbal and non verbal individual s behaviors. Researches in the literature about verbal correspondence used correspondence trainings, without observing if correspondence already exists naturally, with no training need. This study had as objective to describe correspondence behaviors of mothers and sons in a natural situation in a medical context. Seven mother-child pairs (children with ages between five and eight years-old) and one physician participated in the research. With each pair, there were three moments: 1) an interview with the mother and child separately before the medical examination, 2) filming of the examination and 3) interview after the examination with mother and son, separately. The results demonstrated that, from the categorized behaviors, most children showed total verbal correspondence saydo- say (33,33%). However, the mothers had most of their behaviors categorized as noncorrespondence (35,13%). In addition, most mothers did not instruct their sons on how to behave in the medical context, and the mothers who did so, showed incomplete rules. Variables such as age, social- economical level, life history, educational level and context must be better investigated about their influence in the occurrence of natural verbal correspondence. In conclusion, verbal correspondence has a great importance in the health context because it is related to self-control and self-knowing.

An animat approach to dynamic team formation in a group of distributed robots is studied. The goal is that robots learn to align with the others in order to form a row or a column without having communication among them, just local sensing and a reinforcement signal. The action of the robot is controlled by a biologically plausible neural network model of operant learning. The remarkable performance achieved by the proposed model allows the building of new artificial intelligence agents based on neurobiology, psychology and ethology research. Fil: Gutnisky, D. A.. Fil: Zelmann, R.. Fil: Zanutto, Bonifacio Silvano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; Argentina

Motivation incorporates several psychological aspects that produce reward-related and learning behaviors. Although reward-related behavior is reported to be mediated by the dopaminergic reward pathway, the involvement of dopaminergic systems in motivated behavior has not been fully clarified. Several experimental methodologies for motivational behavior have been reported, but pharmacological characteristics seem to vary among these methodologies. In this review, we attempt to summarize three main concepts:(1) the relationship of dopamine neuron physiology with motivated behavior, (2) the pharmacological characteristics of the runway intracranial self-stimulation model, and (3) the behavioral distinction of disparate motivated behaviors.