Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

6208

Date

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Concentration

Behavioral Neuroscience

Committee Chair

Nicholas Wayne Simon

Committee Member

Deranda Lester

Committee Member

James Murphy

Abstract

Excessive risky decision-making is common in multiple psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse disorder. The risky decision-making task (RDT) models addiction-relevant risk-taking in rats by measuring preference between a small reward and large reward associated with systematically increasing risk of shock. This thesis examined the relationship between risk-taking in the RDT and multiple cognitive and neurobiological addiction-relevant phenotypes. Risk-taking was associated with elevated impulsive action, but not impulsive choice or habit formation. Furthermore, risk-taking predicted locomotor sensitivity to first-time nicotine exposure and resilience to nicotine-evoked anxiety. Finally, risk-taking was associated with elevated phasic dopamine release and sensitivity to the dopamine transporter inhibitor nomifensine in the nucleus accumbens. Collectively, these data demonstrate that risk preference in the RDT predicts a cluster of traits associated with substance abuse, and may have utility for identification of neurobiological and genetic biomarkers that engender addiction vulnerability.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

Download

Share

COinS