ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2014
Testosterone enhances risk tolerance without altering motor impulsivity in male rats.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-specific effects of the atypical antipsychotic risperidone on performance in a risky decision-making task.Behavioural brain research · 2027Article
- Review: Suicide and its relationship to aggression and impulsivity.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Nandrolone alters the behavioral response to cocaine as well as striatal and cortical dopamine receptors of prepubertal male rats.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Chronic high-dose testosterone impairs economic decision making, but has no effect on memory in male rats.Behavioural processes · 2024Article
- Gender Impacts the Relationship between Mood Disorder Symptoms and Effortful Avoidance Performance.eNeuro · 2023Article
- Regulation of sex differences in risk-based decision making by gonadal hormones: Insights from rodent models.Behavioural processes · 2022Review
- Regulation of risky decision making by gonadal hormones in males and females.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Prefrontal Cortex Representation of Learning of Punishment Probability During Reward-Motivated Actions.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2020Article
- Anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse and cognitive impairment: Testosterone IMPAIRS biconditional task performance in male rats.Behavioural brain research · 2020Article
- GABAFrontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- The role of inhibition capacities in the Iowa gambling test performance in young tattooed women.BMC psychology · 2019Article
- Three-month cumulative exposure to testosterone and cortisol predicts distinct effects on response inhibition and risky decision-making in adolescents.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Article
- Anabolic-androgenic steroids and cognitive effort discounting in male rats.Hormones and behavior · 2019Article
- Chronic Testosterone Increases Impulsivity and Influences the Transcriptional Activity of the Alpha-2A Adrenergic Receptor Signaling Pathway in Rat Brain.Molecular neurobiology · 2019Article
- Anabolic-androgenic steroids alter decision making in a balanced rodent model of the Iowa gambling task.Behavioral neuroscience · 2018Article
- Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) increase sensitivity to uncertainty by inhibition of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors.Psychopharmacology · 2018Article
- Androgen Regulation of the Mesocorticolimbic System and Executive Function.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2018Review
- mGluR5 Mediates Dihydrotestosterone-Induced Nucleus Accumbens Structural Plasticity, but Not Conditioned Reward.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2018Article
- Male rats play a repeated donation game.Physiology & behavior · 2017Article
- Sex differences and hormonal modulation of ethanol-enhanced risk taking in rats.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) increase impulsive and uncontrolled aggressive ('roid rage) in humans and enhance agonistic behavior in animals. However, the underlying mechanisms for AAS-induced aggression remain unclear. Potential contributing elements include an increase risk-taking and/or motor impulsivity due to AAS. This study addressed the effects of chronic high-dose testosterone on risk tolerance using a risky decision-making task (RDT) and motor impulsivity with a go/no-go task in operant chambers. Male Long-Evans rats were treated for at least 4 weeks with testosterone (7.5mg/kg) or vehicle beginning in late adolescence. Testosterone was used because it is popular among human AAS users. In RDT testing, one lever was paired with delivery of a small "safe" food reward, while the other was paired with a large "risky" reward associated with an increasing risk of footshock (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) in successive test blocks. Three shock intensities were used: 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4mA/kg. As shock intensity and risk of shock increased, preference for the lever signifying a large reward significantly declined for both vehicle- and testosterone-treated rats (p<0.05). There was also a significant effect of drug (p<0.05), where testosterone-treated rats showed greater preference for the large reward, compared to vehicle-treated controls. Increased preference for the large reward, despite risk of footshock, is consistent with increased risk tolerance. In go/no-go testing, rats were trained to press a single lever if the go cue was presented (stimulus light) or to refrain from pressing during the no-go cue (tone). There was no effect of testosterone on pre-cue responses, or performance in go and no-go trials. These results suggest that AAS may increase risk-tolerance without altering motor impulsivity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.