Stress Narrative Favors Habit-Based Control of Instrumental Behavior in Humans
Schwab, Nathan Castella, Remy
Schwab, Nathan
Castella, Remy
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Abstract
Nathan Schwab, Remy Castella, Heather Homberg, Kevin Walder, Eric Thrailkill, & Scott Mackey University of Vermont, Neuroscience Program and Departments of Psychiatry and Psychological Sciences Abstract: Instrumental behavior is governed by two brain systems: a habit-based controller and a goal-directed controller. Habit-based control is fast and efficient, and depends on learning related to previously reinforced behavior. Goal-directed control is slower and more deliberate, and flexibly adapts responding to moment-to-moment changes in the behavioral context. Specific conditions bias control of instrumental behavior to one system or the other. Stress, fatigue, overtraining and cognitive load bias behavior toward habit-based control. Devaluation paradigms in which the outcome of a trained behavior is suddenly devalued are used to assess which system is controlling behavior under different conditions. Here, we used a devaluation paradigm to determine whether a verbal narrative stressor would bias behavior toward habit-based control. Participants were exposed to either a stressful or a neutral nonstressful narrative. On average, the stressed participants continued to respond at a higher rate than the nonstressed participants after outcome devaluation indicating that the narrative stressor effectively biased behavior toward habit-based control. We also examined whether the narrative stressor would differentially affect behavior in smokers and nonsmokers but found that there was no difference between groups.
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1:00 PM
1:00pm-3:00pm
Undergraduate
1:00pm-3:00pm
Undergraduate
Date
2019-01-01