Addiction vulnerability trait impacts complex movement control: Evidence from sign‐trackers

HIGHLIGHTSSign‐tracking (ST) indexes a trait associated with addiction vulnerability.Poor attentional control is an essential component of the ST trait.Here we show that poor complex movement control is also a ST trait component.Dynamic surface traversal cause falls in STs because of poor timing of movement.The ST trait may be a risk factor for a range of neuro‐psychiatric disorders. ABSTRACT Cognitive‐motivational vulnerability traits are associated with increased risk for substance addiction and relapse. Sign‐tracking (ST) behavior in rats is associated with poor attentional control, mediated by an unresponsive basal forebrain cholinergic system, and an increased risk for substance addiction/relapse. A separate literature links poor attentional control and cholinergic losses to increased fall risk in Parkinson's disease. Here we tested the hypothesis that the relatively inferior attentional control of STs extends to complex movement control and a propensity for falls. STs were found to fall more often than goal‐trackers (GTs) while traversing a straight rotating rod and, similar to human fallers, when taxed by a secondary task. Furthermore, STs fell more often while traversing a rotating zig‐zag rod. GTs exhibited fewer falls from this rod by avoiding entry to the rotating zig‐zag sections when in, or rotating toward, a difficult traversal state. Goal‐tracking rats approached risky movement situations using strategies indicative of superior top‐down control. These results suggest that the impact of opponent cognitive‐cholinergic traits extends to complex movement control, and that impairments in the cognitive‐motor interface are likely to be comorbid with addiction vulnerability. Sign‐tracking indexes an endophenotype that may increase the risk for a wide range of neurobehavioral disorders.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Behavioural Brain Research

• Publication date

  2018-09-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.04.045PMID 29705686PMCID PMC6506847
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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