Hippocampal event-related potentials to tone-CS during classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response
Year: 2004
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Hippocampal event-related potentials (ERPs) and nictitating membrane movement were measured during CS period of delay classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response (NMR).A 350-ms tone served as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and a 100-ms corneal airpuff as the unconditioned stimulus (US).Comparison of NMR amplitudes before and after conditioning revealed a robust conditioned response (CR) preceding US onset by approximately 100 ms.By comparing principal component analysis (PCA) factor scores and subject average ERP amplitudes before and after conditioning with paired t-tests, changes in hippocampal ERPs due to learning were found to occur within very short time windows immediately following CS onset and CR onset.No sign of a temporal neural model of the CR, present in numerous multiple-unit activity (MUA) studies, was found.Based on previous experimental results and theories, it is concluded that the timing of the brief ERP changes reflects hippocampus' role in associating the CS with the context of conditioning and with the US, and in timing the CR adaptively.
Author: Miriam S. Nokia
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2266369988