Effect of lesion in amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex or insular cortex on the social learning in rats.
| Autor: | Hsin-fu Lin, 林信甫 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 98 It is important for animals to learn how to respond to the noxious stimulus. Fear conditioning is a process that animals learn to generate fear response to a neutral stimulus. This ability is critical for animals to adapt the environment and survive. Fear conditioning can be formed by self experience with an aversive event. However, fear conditioning can also be acquired vicariously through social observation of others which is suffering from noxious stimuli. In this study, the possibility of social learning in Long-Evans rats and the role of several brain areas in the social learning was investigated. The step-down inhibitory avoidance task was used in this study. The staying time on the platform were used to assess the observational learning. The demonstrators were heated on a hot plate and perform the escaping behavior to stay on a platform. The observers were restrained in an observing box with a transparent window toward the hot plate to observe the demonstrator performing the escaping behavior. After the observers experienced the aversive stimulus, they spent more time on the platform than the basal level before encountering aversive stimulus. The staying time of the observers on the platform would be enhanced further after they observed the demonstrators performing on the hot plate. If the observers observed the hot plate without the demonstrators or with demonstrators not performing the escaping behavior, the time that observers spent on the platform would not be increased. When the transparent window was covered with a thick paper, the observers could not see the performance of the demonstrator which was heat on the hot plate. The time which observers staying on the platform were not also increased. In the different groups, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala (AMY) or insular cortex (IC) lesions blocked the social learning ability of observers from the demonstrators. These result suggested that rats had social learning ability in the step-down inhibitory avoidance paradigm and the ACC, AMY and IC might play important roles in the social learning ability. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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