Colloquium September 18, 2013 Izquierdo, A.

A rat model of cognitive flexibility: implications for studying addictions

Alicia Izquierdo, Ph.D.

Associate professor of Psychology

University of California, Los Angeles

Flexible cognition allows us to respond quickly to changes in a dynamic environment: one in which attentional demands, effort to obtain the reward, reward contingency and incentive reward value changes frequently.  A lack of cognitive flexibility is an important facet of neuropsychiatric disease such as that seen behavioral and substance additions.  One operational definition of this process, discrimination reversal learning, will be elaborated on in this talk: from its neurobiological substrates to its potential use as an assay for vulnerability to psychostimulant addiction. New studies focused on the role of the basolateral amygdala as well as the developmental period of adolescence will be highlighted.