SERIAL PATTERN EXTRAPOLATION IS SPARED DURING A MUSCARINIC CHOLINERGIC CHALLENGE IN RATS
| Autor: | Miller-Cahill, Megan Elizabeth |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Psychology
Psychobiology Neurosciences Animal Sciences Animals Behavioral Sciences Behaviorial Sciences rat serial pattern learning scopolamine acetylcholine learning memory animal cognition rule learning rule extrapolation cholinergic serial learning animal behavior muscarinic suppression comparative cognition animal learning cognition |
| Druh dokumentu: | Text |
| Popis: | Rats have the capacity to extrapolate a known sequence of events to anticipate a novel item. We examined whether or not rats can extrapolate a serial pattern during a muscarinic cholinergic challenge. Adult male and female rats learned to nosepoke a sequential pattern of responses in a circular array of 8 receptacles attached one each to the walls of an octagonal chamber. This training pattern consisted of seven 3-element chunks of a rule-based serial pattern, namely, 123-234-345-456-567-678-781. On the day after meeting a high criterion on the training pattern, rats were given i.p. injections of 0.6 mg/kg scopolamine hydrobromide, a muscarinic cholinergic blocker, before encountering patterns consisting of the 7-chunk training pattern plus an added eighth chunk. The added chunk was either consistent with pattern structure (chunk “812”) or contained a terminal element that violated pattern structure (chunk “818”, where the violation element is underlined). Under scopolamine, and even while showing scopolamine-induced impairments of performance throughout the pattern, rats in both groups extrapolated known pattern structure in the novel added chunk, producing approximately 60% rule-consistent “2” responses on the terminal element of both types of chunks. Thus, despite scopolamine exposure, both male and female rats extrapolated well-learned pattern structure to a new chunk. Whereas earlier work showed that muscarinic cholinergic suppression had little effect on rule learning during acquisition of a pattern, the current study demonstrated that intact muscarinic cholinergic neurotransmission is not necessary for extrapolation of a well-learned rule to a novel chunk. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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