RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Brain Stimulation Reward Supports More Consistent and Accurate Rodent Decision-Making than Food Reward JF eneuro JO eNeuro FD Society for Neuroscience SP ENEURO.0015-17.2017 DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0015-17.2017 A1 Matthew S. McMurray A1 Sineadh M. Conway A1 Jamie D. Roitman YR 2017 UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2017/04/18/ENEURO.0015-17.2017.abstract AB Animal models of decision-making rely on an animal’s motivation to decide and its ability to detect differences among various alternatives. Food reinforcement, although commonly used, is associated with problematic confounds, especially satiety. Here, we examined the use of brain stimulation reward (BSR) as an alternative reinforcer in rodent models of decision-making, and compared it with the effectiveness of sugar pellets. The discriminability of various BSR frequencies was compared to differing numbers of sugar pellets in separate free-choice tasks. We found that BSR was more discriminable, motivated greater task engagement, and more consistent preference for the larger reward. We then investigated whether rats prefer BSR of varying frequencies over sugar pellets. We found that animals showed either a clear preference for sugar reward or no preference between reward modalities, depending on the frequency of the BSR alternative and the size of the sugar reward. Overall, these results suggest that BSR is an effective reinforcer in rodent decision-making tasks, removing food-related confounds and resulting in more accurate, consistent, and reliable metrics of choice.Significance Statement Food reinforcement, although commonly used, is associated with problematic confounds, especially satiety. Here, we examined the use of brain stimulation reward (BSR) as an alternative to food reward in animal models of decision-making, and compared it with the effectiveness of sugar pellets. We found that BSR was more discriminable, motivated greater task engagement, and more consistent preference for the larger reward in free-choice tasks. These results suggest that BSR is an effective reinforcer in rodent decision-making tasks, removing food-related confounds and resulting in more accurate, consistent, and reliable metrics of choice.