Conditioned place preference successfully established in typically developing children

Leah Ticker Hiller; Sandy Takata; Barbara L Thompson

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00187

Conditioned place preference successfully established in typically developing children

Front Behav Neurosci. 2015 Jul 20:9:187. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00187. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Leah Ticker Hiller¹, Sandy Takata¹, Barbara L Thompson²

Affiliations

¹ Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, USA ; Department of Cell and Neurobiology, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, USA ; Department of Pediatrics, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Affective processing, known to influence attention, motivation, and emotional regulation is poorly understood in young children, especially for those with neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by language impairments. Here we faithfully adapt a well-established animal paradigm used for affective processing, conditioned place preference (CPP) for use in typically developing children between the ages of 30-55 months. Children displayed a CPP, with an average 2.4 fold increase in time spent in the preferred room. Importantly, associative learning as assessed with CPP was not correlated with scores on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL), indicating that CPP can be used with children with a wide range of cognitive skills.

Keywords: affective; associative learning; child; conditioned place preference; social behavior.