Biology subjects

Kalenscher, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Kalenscher, T..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Reduced motivation for social contact in Disrupted-in-schizophrenia transgenic rats

The Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) signaling pathway is considered to play a key role in schizophrenia, depression, autism and other psychiatric disorders. DISC1 is involved in regulating the dopaminergic neurotransmission in, among others, the mesolimbic reward system. A transgenic rat line tgDISC1 has been introduced as a model system to study behavioral phenotypes associated with abnormal DISC1 pathways. Here, we evaluated the impact of impaired DISC1 signaling on social (social interaction) and non-social (sucrose) reward preferences in the tgDISC1 animal model. In a plus-maze setting, rats chose between the opportunity for social interaction with an unfamiliar juvenile conspecific (social reward) or drinking sweet solutions with variable sucrose concentrations (non-social reward). tgDISC1 rats differed from wild-type rats in their social, but not in their non-social reward preferences. Specifically, DISC1 rats showed a lower interest in interaction with the juvenile conspecific, but did not differ from wild-type rats in their preference for higher sucrose concentrations. These results suggest that disruptions of the DISC1 pathway that is associated with altered dopamine transmission in the brain result in selective deficits in social motivation seen in neuropsychiatric illness.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Cross-species comparison of human and rodent primary reward consumption under budget constraints

Optimal use of resources is of great importance for survival of all species. Previous studies have shown that rats optimize their allocation of a limited number of operant responses (akin to a finite budget) to trade for food rewards. Here, we propose a novel human cost-benefit decision paradigm translated from an economic task initially developed for rodents, to conduct a cross-species comparison of primary reward consumption under budget constraints. Participants had a limited budget of effortful button-presses to obtain the opportunity to drink milk rewards or watch erotic pictures. Like rodents, they adapted their choice allocation when the price (i.e. fixed-ratio requirement for reward) and the budget changed when purchasing milk rewards. However, this was not the case when purchasing the opportunity to watch erotic pictures: compared to the milk and to the rodent task, participants made more internally inconsistent, hence, irrational choices, despite otherwise identical task structures. We found non-linear changes in arousal as a function of reward selection that might underlie the irrationality in the picture task. Our study shows that the type of reward matters not only for capturing the convergence in human and non-human economic decision-making, but also for understanding the factors behind compromised economic rationality.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

To give or not to take - insular cortex subserves framing-induced boosts in generosity during social discounting

Generosity toward others declines across the perceived social distance to them. Here, participants chose between selfish and costly generous options in two conditions: in the gain frame, a generous choice yielded a gain to the other; in the loss frame, it entailed preventing the loss of a previous endowment to the other. Social discounting was reduced in the loss compared to the gain frame, implying increased generosity toward strangers. Using neuroimaging tools, we found that while the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) subserved generosity in the gain frame, the insular cortex was selectively recruited during generous choices in the loss frame. We provide support for a network-model according to which TPJ and insula differentially promote generosity by modulating value signals in the VMPFC in a frame-dependent fashion. These results extend our understanding of the insula role in nudging prosocial behavior in humans.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Guilty by association: How group-based (collective) guilt arises in the brain

People do not only feel guilty for transgressions of social norms/expectations that they are causally responsible for, but they also feel guilty for transgressions committed by those they identify as in-group (i.e., collective or group-based guilt). However, the neurocognitive basis of group-based guilt and its relation to personal guilt are unknown. To address these questions, we combined functional MRI with an interaction-based minimal group paradigm in which participants either directly caused harm to victims (i.e., personal guilt), or observed in-group members cause harm to the victims (i.e., group-based guilt). In three experiments (N = 90), we demonstrated that perceived shared responsibility with in-group members in the transgression predicted behavioral and neural manifestations of group-based guilt. Multivariate pattern analysis of the functional MRI data showed that group-based guilt recruited a similar brain representation in anterior middle cingulate cortex as personal guilt. These results have broaden our understanding of how group membership is integrated into social emotions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Social value unblocks Pavlovian reinforcement learning in male rats

Many species, including humans, are sensitive to social signals and their valuation is important in social learning. When social cues indicate that another is experiencing reward, they could convey vicarious reward value and prompt social learning. Here, we introduce a task that investigates if vicarious reward delivery in male rats can drive reinforcement learning in a formal associative learning paradigm. Using the blocking/unblocking paradigm, we found that when actor rats have fully learned a stimulus-self reward association, adding a cue that predicted additional partner reward unblocked associative learning about this cue. In contrast, additional cues that did not predict partner reward remained blocked from acquiring associative value. Preventing social signal exchange between the partners resulted in cues signaling partner reward remaining blocked. Taken together, these results suggest that vicarious rewards can drive reinforcement learning in rats, and that the transmission of social cues is necessary for this learning to occur.

animal behavior and cognition↗