Stress-coping behavior during predator odor exposure is associated with differences in decision making
Brooke N Bender, Madison E Hoffman, Caroline G Krieman, Heavyn Smith, Joyce Besheer · 2026
Read Stress-coping behavior during predator odor exposure is associated with differences in decision making by Brooke N Bender, Madison E Hoffman, Caroline G Krieman, Heavyn Smith, Joyce Besheer (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13492555.txt.
Description
Brooke N Bender and four colleagues ask in 2026 whether the way a rat copes during a frightening experience forecasts its later choices about rewards. Trauma and alcohol problems intertwine in people, and predator odor exposure gives rats lasting stress symptoms. Some rats freeze when they smell the fox-derived odor, while others dig frantically, and those styles were already known to predict later drinking.
Rats that dug during exposure later chose small immediate rewards over larger delayed ones more often, a marker of impulsivity. Digging also tracked with weaker pursuit of sugar rewards before and after the stressor. Exposed females in a second experiment worked harder for both alcohol and sugar when the two competed side by side. Behavior during stress, the authors argue, can flag which animals, and perhaps which people, need watching afterward.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Brooke N Bender, Madison E Hoffman, Caroline G Krieman, Heavyn Smith, Joyce Besheer |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 71 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |