Saturday, April 5, 2025
4/5/2025
Motivational control of sensory-seeking behavior and its relevance to behavioral addictions - PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of this project is to investigate operant sensory seeking (OSS) behavior in a mouse model. OSS occurs when animals perform actions to produce a sensory stimulus, such a light or sound, indicating that sensory stimuli, independent of any conditioned association with primary reinforcers, are themselves intrinsically reinforcing. The motivation to seek out sensory stimuli may underlie adaptive behaviors, such as curiosity and exploration, as well as maladaptive behaviors, such as compulsive actions and addiction. Despite its prevalence in behavior and its relevance to mental health disorders, OSS is not well understood. This proposal’s central hypothesis is that OSS reflects the operation of an “explore/exploit” decision-making system. We hypothesize that the degree to which OSS reflects exploratory or exploitative actions depends on environmental factors, such as variability in the environment, and internal factors, such as stress and endophenotypes for novelty seeking or compulsivity. To address this hypothesis, we propose a new paradigm for investigating OSS that involves choice between variable and fixed sensory stimuli. In Aim 1, we examine how changes in sensory outcome variability, novelty, and uncertainty influence choice and action selection. We additionally examine whether OSS correlates with other exploratory and exploitative behaviors. In Aim 2, we examine how adolescent isolation rearing, a form of early life stress causatively linked with mood disorders and addiction, affects OSS. These Aims, if successful, will 1) establish a behavior paradigm that futures studies will use to examine neurobiological substrates of OSS; 2) be used in animal models of mental health disorders to assess altered OSS 3) identify environmental factors that contribute to OSS that could be used to mitigate or reduce likelihood of developing behavioral addictions. This project is innovative in developing a new behavior paradigm, and in opening new avenues to understand brain circuits involved in OSS.
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