OFC and Addiction in Animal Studies
(For a review see Porrino & Lyons, 2000.) Stimulating the OFC in laboratory animals results in drug self- administration. In animal studies the OFC is hypothesized to not only be associated with the response to reward, but also to respond and adjust animal behavior when the rewarding properties of the reinforcement change - as well as learning the association between stimulus and reward. The damage to the OFC results in deficits in reversal of stimulus reinforcement in which an animal perseverates on a behavior and fails to extinguish a behavior. This perseveration and inability to extinguish a behavior can be related to drug administration in substance abuse and substance dependence where individuals compulsively self-administer a drug even with drastic decrease of reinforcing effects of that drug and tolerance to the pleasurable effects and in the presence of adverse consequences of drug use. Rats who are reintroduced to an environment in which they used cocaine experience activation of the OFC. In addition, in rats, repeated alcohol use causes degeneration of the OFC.
Read more about this topic: Orbitofrontal Cortex
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