[Experience of the first "whisker-dependent" task influenced c-Fos induction in rat barrel cortex neurons during acquisition of the second "whisker-independent" task].

In this work we aimed to create a controlled history of two sequential trainings in order to find out activation patterns of "the first task" neurons during the second task learning. Rats were first trained to perform instrumental water rewarded behavior that required using left or right whiskers (a conditioned "whisking" task), and then to perform food-acquisition task of pedal pressing (not a conditioned "whisking" task). We found that food-acquisition task learning is accompanied by c-Fos induction in the barrel cortex neurons in animals that learned previously a conditioned "whisking" task. These data suggest that c-Fos induction during the second training took place in neurons that were specialized in relation to the first, "whisking" task.