Rationale: Impulsive behaviour is a component of psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or personality disorders. Most experimental studies on impulsive behaviour punish impulsive choices by loss or delay of reward. In the present study, impulsive behaviour was punished by an explicitly aversive stimulus, using a novel fixed consecutive number (FCN) schedule of electric shock avoidance.
Objectives: This study was conducted to demonstrate stable performance using the FCN avoidance procedure, and examine the effects of drugs previously shown to affect impulsive behaviour using a conventional FCN schedule.
Methods: First, rats were trained in the appetitive FCN procedure. Pressing the right lever in an operant conditioning chamber after having pressed the left lever at least six times delivered a food pellet (FCN6). Responses on the right lever before completing this ratio resulted in a time out and restarted the ratio. The rats were then switched to FCN avoidance. Responses on the right lever made before completion of the ratio also resulted in food delivery, but were accompanied by an electric shock.
Results: Chlordiazepoxide (10.0 mg/kg), ethanol (1.0 g/kg), and haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg) increased impulsive behaviour by reducing the number of left lever responses made before the right lever was pressed. Imipramine (1.0-10.0 mg/kg) and desipramine (1.0-10.0 mg/kg) had no effect on impulsive choice. Amphetamine (0.4 and 0.8 mg/kg) and methylphenidate (6.0 mg/kg) significantly increased the mean chain length, and the proportion of very long chains, indicative of reduced impulsivity, although this did not improve efficiency.
Conclusions: The increases in impulsivity produced by chlordiazepoxide, ethanol, and haloperidol were similar to those under appetitive FCN schedules. In contrast, amphetamine and methylphenidate, by reducing impulsivity in the FCN avoidance, induced effects opposite to those observed in an appetitive FCN procedure. These results suggest that the therapeutic actions of stimulants, to reduce impulsive behaviour in ADHD, may arise in part by increasing the control of behaviour by aversive stimuli.