Trevor W. Robbins

TL;DR: Evidence from probe trials in which the visual stimuli were presented separately or simultaneously showed that the impairment was not due to a failure to localize the stimuli in contralateral space but, rather, resulted from a deficit in directing responses in contalateral space.

TL;DR: The role of reinforcers in influencing choice was studied by use of a schedule that included a random intermixing of reinforced and explicitly non-reinforced components to derive a choice measure of reinforcement which was independent of alterations in average response rate.

TL;DR: Novel evidence is provided for the existence in rats of an individual vulnerability to switch from controlled to compulsive, punishment-resistant alcohol seeking, and it is shown that a selective and potent μ-opioid receptor antagonist reduced both alcohol seeking and alcohol intake in compulsive and non-compulsive rats, indicating its therapeutic potential to promote abstinence and prevent relapse in individuals addicted to alcohol.

TL;DR: Attention was captured by bottom–up attention to salient information to a greater extent in patients than in controls when shifting to a high-salient dimension during attentional set shifting, providing the first direct evidence for a failure of top–down attentional control.

TL;DR: The role of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) in stimulus-reward learning was assessed by testing the effects of PPTg lesions on performance in visual autoshaping and conditioned reinforcement paradigms, and lesion-induced disruptions of attentional processes that are mediated by the thalamus are discussed.