Can testosterone induce consummatory successive positive contrast?

Abstract

Rats that have been exposed to an upshift from a small reward to a large one have shown patterns of inconsistent consummatory behaviors. First, it has been reported that they show a transient increased in their consummatory behaviors, being this phenomenon called Consummatory Successive Positive Contrast (cSPC); second, other researchers have reported no changes in their behavior. cSPC could be a good model form studying positive emotion; however preliminary results in our lab indicate that this phenomenon is hardly to obtain. In this thesis, I explored the idea that cSPC is obtainable when testosterone (T) is administered. I did not find evidence of this. Factors like neophobia, generalization decrement and habitual behaviors are factors that probably prevent cSPC from happening.