Abstract
The selective breeding of Roman high- (RHA) and low-avoidance (RLA) rats for rapid vs extremely poor acquisition of active avoidance behavior in a shuttle-box has generated two phenotypes with different emotional and motivational profiles. The phenotypic traits of the Roman rat lines/strains (outbred or inbred, respectively) include differences in sensation/novelty seeking, anxiety/fearfulness, stress responsivity, and susceptibility to addictive substances. We designed this study to characterize differences between the inbred RHA-I and RLA-I strains in the impulsivity trait by evaluating different aspects of the multifaceted nature of impulsive behaviors using two different models of impulsivity, the delay-discounting task and five-choice serial reaction time (5-CSRT) task. Previously, rats were evaluated on a schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) task that has been suggested as a model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. RHA-I rats showed an increased acquisition of the SIP task, higher choice impulsivity in the delay-discounting task, and poor inhibitory control as shown by increased premature responses in the 5-CSRT task. Therefore, RHA-I rats manifested an increased impulsivity phenotype compared with RLA-I rats. Moreover, these differences in impulsivity were associated with basal neurochemical differences in striatum and nucleus accumbens monoamines found between the two strains. These findings characterize the Roman rat strains as a valid model for studying the different aspects of impulsive behavior and for analyzing the mechanisms involved in individual predisposition to impulsivity and its related psychopathologies.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by project SEJ2006-15226-C0201/PSIC, granted by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, subdirección general de proyectos de investigación and by FEDER funds. AF-T and AT receive support from EURATools (European Commission Contract no. LSHG-CT-2005-019015), PSI2009-10532, and 2009-SGR-51. We thank A Cañete and L Ruedas for their invaluable and continuous help.
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Moreno, M., Cardona, D., Gómez, M. et al. Impulsivity Characterization in the Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rat Strains: Behavioral and Neurochemical Differences. Neuropsychopharmacol 35, 1198–1208 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.224
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