ArticleEuropean neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology2015
Anabolic-androgenic steroids impair set-shifting and reversal learning in male rats.
Article in European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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23 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Anabolic androgenic steroids induce distinct monoaminergic and lipidomic alterations in the male rat brain.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Developmental perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure alters gene expression in nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex and impairs cognition in rats: A transcriptomic and mediation analysis.Ecotoxicology and environmental safety · 2026Article
- Neurosteroids and the mesocorticolimbic system.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Use Patterns and Steroid Use Disorders in a Sample of Male Gym Visitors.European addiction research · 2023Article
- Sex differences in cognitive flexibility are driven by the estrous cycle and stress-dependent.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Performance on a modified signal detection task of attention is impaired in male and female rats following developmental exposure to the synthetic progestin, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate.Hormones and behavior · 2021Article
- Developmental exposure to 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate impairs adult delayed reinforcement and reversal learning in male and female rats.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- Anabolic androgenic steroid abuse in the United Kingdom: An update.British journal of pharmacology · 2020Review
- Anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse and cognitive impairment: Testosterone IMPAIRS biconditional task performance in male rats.Behavioural brain research · 2020Article
- Sex differences in reward- and punishment-guided actions.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Structural brain characteristics of anabolic-androgenic steroid dependence in men.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2019Article
- Anabolic-androgenic steroids and cognitive effort discounting in male rats.Hormones and behavior · 2019Article
- Supraphysiologic-dose anabolic-androgenic steroid use: A risk factor for dementia?Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
- Adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: Overview of substance use assessment methods.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2018Review
- 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
- 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
- Tyramide Signal Amplification Permits Immunohistochemical Analyses of Androgen Receptors in the Rat Prefrontal Cortex.The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) abuse is prevalent not only among elite athletes, but is increasingly common in high school and collegiate sports. AAS are implicated in maladaptive behaviors such as increased aggression and risk taking, which may result from impaired cognition. Because they affect dopamine function in prefrontal cortical (PFC)-striatal circuitry, AAS may disrupt PFC-dependent processes such as behavioral flexibility. This was the focus of the present study. Adolescent male Long-Evans rats were treated chronically with high-dose testosterone (7.5mg/kg in water with 13% cyclodextrin) or vehicle sc, and tested for set-shifting and reversal-learning. For set-shifting, rats were trained on a visual cue task (VCT), then were shifted to a direction cue task (DCT), or vice-versa. For reversal learning, rats were first trained on VCT and were then required to press the opposite lever. 2-cue set-shifting introduced a novel paradigm in which rats shifted from a 1-Light Visual Task (1LVT) to a tone cue task (TCT). Testosterone-treated rats were significantly impaired on the set-shift from DCT to VCT compared to vehicle-treated controls (trials to criterion: vehicle 240.9±29.9, testosterone 388.3±59.3, p<0.05). However, on the set-shift from VCT to DCT, testosterone did not affect performance. During reversal-learning, testosterone significantly increased trials to criterion (vehicle: 495.9±91.8 trials, testosterone: 793.7±96.7 trials, p<0.05). In 2-cue set-shifting, testosterone diminished performance and the difference showed borderline significance (vehicle: 443.2±84.4 trials, testosterone: 800.4±178.2 trials, p=0.09). Our results show that testosterone impairs behavioral flexibility and have implications for understanding cognitive and behavioral changes in human AAS users.
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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.