Three intensities of the conditioned stimulus (CS) were used to investigate the role of cutaneous fiber size on classical conditioning of the flexion reflex in the spinal cat. Conditioning occurred when the CS activated A alpha and A delta cutaneous fibers; CS activation of only the largest myelinated (A alpha) fibers or CS recruitment of unmyelinated (C) fibers in addition to A alpha and A delta fibers did not lead to significant conditioning. Comparison with two unpaired CS-US control treatment groups showed that the facilitation of reflex output during conditioning was specific to pairing of the CS and US and was not a consequence of sensitization or differential habituation rates between paired (conditioning) and unpaired (control) groups. These results were comparable to those from intact animal conditioning studies and thus lend further support to the spinal conditioning preparation as an appropriate simplified system for investigations of neural mechanisms of learning.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0014-4886(84)90069-4 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Benefits of the "worst-case scenario": a multi-level examination of the effects of confronting the feared outcome during imagery-based exposure.
Cogn Behav Ther
January 2025
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 312 Wilson Hall, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
Exposure therapy is an efficacious treatment for anxiety-related disorders. Yet, fear often returns after treatment. Occasional reinforcement, in which the feared stimulus is intermittently presented during extinction, increases safety learning and slows fear renewal in conditioning paradigms and analogue samples, but no studies to date have examined this strategy in clinical samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContribution of rat insular cortex to stimulus-guided action.
J Neurosci
January 2025
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France
Anticipating rewards is fundamental for decision-making. Animals often use cues to assess reward availability and to make predictions about future outcomes. The gustatory region of the insular cortex (IC), the so-called gustatory cortex, has a well-established role in the representation of predictive cues, such that IC neurons encode both a general form of outcome expectation as well as anticipatory outcome-specific knowledge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetrieval of conditioned immune response in male mice is mediated by an anterior-posterior insula circuit.
Nat Neurosci
January 2025
Sagol Department of Neuroscience, The Integrated Brain and Behavior Center, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
To protect the body from infections, the brain has evolved the ability to coordinate behavioral and immunological responses. The conditioned immune response (CIR) is a form of Pavlovian conditioning wherein a sensory (for example, taste) stimulus, when paired with an immunomodulatory agent, evokes aversive behavior and an anticipatory immune response after re-experiencing the taste. Although taste and its valence are represented in the anterior insular cortex and immune response in the posterior insula and although the insula is pivotal for CIRs, the precise circuitry underlying CIRs remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContextual cues facilitate dynamic value encoding in the mesolimbic dopamine system.
Curr Biol
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Electronic address:
Adaptive behavior in a dynamic environmental context often requires rapid revaluation of stimuli that deviates from well-learned associations. The divergence between stable value-encoding and appropriate behavioral output remains a critical component of theories of dopamine's function in learning, motivation, and motor control. Yet, how dopamine neurons are involved in the revaluation of cues when the world changes, to alter our behavior, remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA Parallel Human and Rat Investigation of the Interaction Between Descending and Spinal Modulatory Mechanisms.
Eur J Pain
March 2025
Department of Life Sciences, South Kensington, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Background: Healthy individuals demonstrate considerable heterogeneity upon dynamic quantitative sensory testing assessment of endogenous pain modulatory mechanisms. For those who stratify into a 'pro-nociceptive profile' cohort, consisting of inefficient conditioned pain modulation (CPM) and elevated temporal summation of pain (TSP), the optimal approach for balancing the net output of pain modulatory processes towards anti-nociception remains unresolved. In this translational healthy human and rat study, we examined whether descending modulation countered spinal amplification during concurrent application of a CPM and TSP paradigm alongside pupillometry since pontine activity was previously linked to functionality of endogenous pain modulatory mechanisms and pupil dilation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!