Un estudio comparado sobre la modulación de la conducta por factores motivacionales y emocionales

Abstract

In this thesis, we analyze how emotional and motivational factors modulate stable responses such as the consummatory response in a consummatory Successive Negative Contrast procedure (cSNC) in rats, or the startle response and prepulse inhibition in humans. In our research, one study confirmed that changing the animal’s deprivation state modulated the cSNC effect in rats. Specifically, water deprivation compared to food deprivation disrupts the contrast effect since the animals pay more attention to the hydrating component of sucrose solution than to its value as a source of calories. In a second study, and considering the aversive emotional consequences of the devaluation of the incentive, we analysed the effect of testing cSNC in presence of a context repeatedly associated with morphine. The results of this study showed that the presence of the conditioned context reduced the contrast effect in a drug-free test. Therefore, we conclude that contextual cues associated with the anxiolytic-like effects of morphine interrupted the contrast effect. Finally, and regarding the study of emotional factors, we examined the effect of a positive a induced in the participants by the presentation of photographs of family and closed friends on startle response and prepulse inhibition in humans. The results revealed a reduction in the magnitude of startle response and prepulse inhibition in the positive a