Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Date
2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Nicholas Simon
Committee Member
Nicholas W Simon
Committee Member
Helen J Sable
Committee Member
James G Murphy
Committee Member
Judith A Cole
Abstract
The ability to accumulate rewards while minimizing negative consequences is a valuable survival skill. Importantly, many psychiatric diseases such as substance use disorder (SUD; Bechara, 2005; Gowin et al., 2013), attention deficit hyperactivity (Magnus et al., 2021), anxiety (Hartley and Phelps, 2012), major depressive, bipolar, and schizophrenia disorders (Whitton et al., 2015) involve impaired decision-making that can lead to detrimental outcomes. One factor that causes maladaptive decision-making is insensitivity to negative consequences, especially those that occur later in time (Murphy et al., 2001; Bechara and Dolan, 2002; Field et al., 2019). These studies were among the first to investigate how the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region implicated in cost/benefit decision-making (Floresco et al., 2008) and reward discounting (Zeeb et al., 2010), contributes to the discounting of delayed punishment. Information gathered from the current work provided the first evidence that inactivation of lateral orbitofrontal cortex (LOFC) reduced choice of delayed punishment compared to saline baselines, and LOFC inhibition occurred prior to different types of safe reward choices compared to immediate punishment. Preliminary optogenetics data also found that pre-choice inhibition reduced delayed punishment choice. In summation, LOFC drives the undervaluation of delayed punishment, and future therapeutic treatments aiming to improve discounting of delayed punishments during decision-making would benefit from selectively suppressing LOFC activity.
Library Comment
Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest
Notes
Embargoed until 11/3/2023
Recommended Citation
Liley, Anna E., "Contribution of the Orbitofrontal Cortex to Delayed Punishment Discounting" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3199.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/3199
Comments
Data is provided by the student.