Conditioned suppression of a positively reinforced shuttle response

Past research on backward conditioning in evaluative and fear conditioning yielded inconsistent results in that self-report measures suggest that the conditional stimulus (CS) acquired the valence of the unconditional stimulus (US) in fear conditioning (assimilation effects), but the opposite valence in evaluative conditioning (contrast effects). Conversely, implicit measures of CS valence suggest assimilation effects in evaluative backward conditioning, whereas startle modulation indicates contrast effects in backward fear conditioning. The current study investigated whether US intensity could account for the dissociation on implicit measures between fear and evaluative conditioning. Self-report measures of evaluative learning indicated assimilation effects for forward conditioning, whereas backward contrast effects were observed with intense USs only. Blink startle modulation indicated assimilation effects in forward conditioning and contrast effects in backward conditioning, regardless of US intensity. Experiment 2 included a neutral US in order to assess whether the offset of the positive US elicits an opponent emotional response that mirrors relief (disappointment), which is thought to mediate the reduction in startle seen during backward CSs in fear conditioning. This opponent emotional response was evident as startle magnitude during backward CSs increased linearly with increasing US pleasantness. Omission of the forward CSs led to an assimilation effect in self-report measures. The current results extend our understanding of emotional learning to stimuli encountered after salient emotional events. Startle reflects the emotion prevailing after US offset, relief or disappointment, whereas self-report measures seem more attuned to factors such as US predictability and intensity.

Studies of blocking between elements from the same stimulus modality elucidate how animals analyze such mixtures. Proboscis-extension conditioning of honey bees was used to examine the role of unconditioned stimulus (US) intensity in blocking in odorant mixtures. Several predictions from theoretical accounts of blocking were tested. One-trial blocking was found when subjects were pretrained with a high but not a low US concentration. Increases in US intensity produced unblocking, but decreases did not. Furthermore, an equivalent level of unblocking was observed when the increase occurred on the 1st or 2nd mixture-phase trials. These results are consistent with studies of vertebrates in which US intensity is altered to produce unblocking. Extension of these studies to include variation in other US parameters and to intramodal blocking in vertebrates will be necessary to determine whether this correspondence to vertebrate blocking is robust.

Studies of blocking between elements from the same stimulus modality elucidate how animals analyze such mixtures. Proboscis-extension conditioning of honey bees was used to examine the role of unconditioned stimulus (US) intensity in blocking in odorant mixtures. Several predictions from theoretical accounts of blocking were tested. One-trial blocking was found when subjects were pretrained with a high but not a low US concentration. Increases in US intensity produced unblocking, but decreases did not. Furthermore, an equivalent level of unblocking was observed when the increase occurred on the 1st or 2nd mixture-phase trials. These results are consistent with studies of vertebrates in which US intensity is altered to produce unblocking. Extension of these studies to include variation in other US parameters and to intramodal blocking in vertebrates will be necessary to determine whether this correspondence to vertebrate blocking is robust.

Ethanol-exposed neonatal rats are impaired as adults in classical eyeblink conditioning at multiple unconditioned stimulus intensities

Three experiments examined inhibitory learning in rats, using Pavlovian and differential inhibitory eyeblink conditioning procedures. Experiment 1 was designed to compare summation and retardation effects following Pavlovian conditioned inhibition (A+/XA-) or differential inhibition (A+/X-) training using auditory and visual conditioned stimuli (CSs). After ten 100-trial sessions of training, both Pavlovian conditioned inhibition and differential inhibition produced a retardation effect. However, a summation effect was obtained only for rats given Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training. Experiment 2 showed that increasing differential inhibition training to twenty 100-trial sessions produced summation and retardation effects. In Experiment 3, rats were trained with either ten or twenty 100-trial sessions of intramodal inhibitory training with two tone CSs (2 kHz vs. 8 kHz). Summation and retardation effects were obtained after only 20 sessions of differential conditioning. The findings indicate that extensive training is needed to establish conditioned inhibition with intermodal or intramodal differential conditioning.

We examined whether the inhibitory Conditional Stimulus (CS)-no Unconditional Stimulus (US) association formed during extinction can be triggered by a novel US during the reinstatement of conditional electrodermal responding and self-reported CS valence in human differential fear conditioning. Participants were trained with either a shock or an aversive scream US before undergoing extinction. Participants then received either the same (i.e., shock_shock or scream_scream) or a different US during reinstatement (i.e., shock_scream, scream_shock). Differential conditioning across all indices was stronger when a shock US was used during acquisition. After reinstatement, electrodermal responding to both the CS+ and the CS- increased regardless of the type of US used during reinstatement (non-differential reinstatement). Differential CS valence evaluations were larger after reinstatement in the groups that received the same US during acquisition and reinstatement (differential reinstatement), but differential evaluations did not increase in the groups receiving a different US at reinstatement. This dissociation suggests that the reinstatement of negative stimulus valence and the reinstatement of expectancy learning may differ.

Interval Timing in Aversive Conditioning: Neural Correlates in Amygdala and Related Networks in Rats

Conditional stimuli (CS) associated with painful unconditional stimuli (US) produce a naloxone-reversible analgesia. The analgesia serves as a negative-feedback regulation of fear conditioning that can account for the impact of US intensity and CS predictiveness on Pavlovian fear conditioning. In Experiment 1 training under naloxone produced learning curves that approached the same high asymptote despite US intensity. Shifting drug treatment during acquisition had effects that paralleled US intensity shifts. In Experiment 3 naloxone reversed Hall-Pearce (1979) negative transfer using a contextual CS, indicating that conditional analgesia acquired during the CS-weak-footshock phase retards acquisition in the CS-strong-footshock phase. Experiment 5 used a tone CS in both a latent-inhibition and a negative-transfer procedure. Only negative transfer was blocked by naloxone. Therefore, negative transfer but not latent inhibition is mediated by a reduction of US processing.

To evaluate the clinical use of hearing measurement by means of Pavlovian conditioned response, the establishment of conditioned blinking response and its application to the hearing test were studied. For the conditioning, the speed flash and lantern slides with speed flash were used as optic unconditinned stimuli, and pure tone of 1, 000cps (30-50db) was selected as auditory conditioned stimulus. After the completion of the conditioning, the threshold of hearing was measured about 3 pure tones of 500cps, 1, 000cps and 4, 000cps.A. The following are the results of the conditioning from 85 examinees.1. The above-mentioned method of conditioning spent time comparatively.2. It was difficult to develop this conditioning among the children under 55year of age.3. The conditioning was established in about 80per cent of examinees, and this rate of establishment was maximum of this conditioning.B. The results of the comparison of pure-tone thresholds measured by means of conditioned blinking response and by routine subjective methods were as follows: Those who showed the difference of less than ±10db between the results by these two methods were 92, 9per cent of 57 examinees. Those who showed the difference of less than ±5db between the results by these two methods were 63.0per cent; and those who showed the identical data by either methods were 47.2per cent.From these results, the measurement of hearing by the above-mentioned method is considered to be satisfactory, when it is applied for the examinees having established the conditioned response.

Event Abstract Back to Event Restoring the males’ honor: Pavlovian PER conditioning of visual cues in bumblebee drones Leonie Lichtenstein1, Frank M. Sommerlandt1* and Johannes Spaethe1 1 University of Würzburg, Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Germany Learning visual cues is essential in bees for orientation, as well as for the recognition of nest sites, food sources and mating partners. A well-established method for a quantitative evaluation of learning and memory in bees under controlled environmental conditions is the proboscis extension response (PER). After several decades of failure, the PER assay has recently been successfully applied for the associative conditioning of visual stimuli in intact honeybees (Dobrin and Fahrbach, 2012) and bumblebees (Riveros and Gronenberg, 2012). Research using the PER method has primarily focused on workers, whereas males were largely neglected. In the present study, we tested intact Bombus terrestris drones in different visual learning tasks using classical PER conditioning and different monochromatic light stimuli (435, 488, and 528nm). Individuals were confronted with absolute (A+) and differential (A+ vs. B-) conditioning tasks. Furthermore, drones were tested to determine if they can retrieve the learned stimulus after two hours and transfer this information to a subsequent discrimination task in a Y-maze. Our results indicate that drones are capable of discriminating between monochromatic light stimuli, and they attain performance levels similar to that of workers. This approach will allow us to investigate color discrimination abilities of bees in different parts of the color space by increasing the color similarity between stimuli in differential conditioning under controlled conditions. Comparing the perceptual capabilities of different bee species using the PER paradigm may thus enable us to better understand the evolution of color processing within the family Apidae. Figure 1: Probability of proboscis extension response (PER) during absolute conditioning of three color stimuli. Bumblebee drones were trained to associate a color stimulus of particular wavelength (435nm, n=20; 488nm, n=21; and 528nm, n=17) with a sucrose reward. After two hours, a transfer test showed that drones can retrieve the learned color (conditioned stimulus; CS) and discriminate against a novel color (Ncol). Learning performance did not differ among colors. Figure 1 Keywords: Bumblebee, associative learning, proboscis extension response, monochromatic light, visual conditioning, Bombus terrestris, memory consolidation, Drones Conference: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Fjälkinge, Sweden, 1 Aug - 8 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster presentation preferred Topic: Colour and polarisation vision Citation: Lichtenstein L, Sommerlandt FM and Spaethe J (2019). Restoring the males’ honor: Pavlovian PER conditioning of visual cues in bumblebee drones. Front. Physiol. Conference Abstract: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphys.2013.25.00107 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Feb 2013; Published Online: 09 Dec 2019. * Correspondence: Mr. Frank M Sommerlandt, University of Würzburg, Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Würzburg, 97074, Germany, frank.sommerlandt@uni-wuerzburg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Leonie Lichtenstein Frank M Sommerlandt Johannes Spaethe Google Leonie Lichtenstein Frank M Sommerlandt Johannes Spaethe Google Scholar Leonie Lichtenstein Frank M Sommerlandt Johannes Spaethe PubMed Leonie Lichtenstein Frank M Sommerlandt Johannes Spaethe Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

In a previous study (Hugdahl & Brobeck, 1986) it was shown that Pavlovian conditioning to an auditory verbal conditioned stimulus (CS) initially presented only to the left cerebral hemisphere was stronger than when the same CS was presented to the right hemisphere. This was followed up in the present study by controlling for the possibility that the effect was caused by laterally biased attention. The study was performed using the "dichotic extinction paradigm," which consists of three different phases. During the habituation phase, the CS+ and CS- were presented binaurally and separated in time. During the acquisition phase, the CS+ was followed by a white-noise unconditioned stimulus (UCS). During the dichotic extinction phase, the CS+ and CS- were presented dichotically, i.e., simultaneous presentations on each trial. Half of the subjects had the CS+ in the right ear, and half had the CS+ in the left ear. Each group was further divided into two subgroups, with one subgroup instructed to attend only to the right ear input, and the other subgroup to attend only to the left ear input. During acquisition, larger electrodermal responses were obtained to the CS+ than to the CS-. During dichotic extinction, the CS+ right ear group showed superior resistance to extinction compared to the CS+ left ear group, with no effect of the manipulation of attention. The effect was, however, attenuated when levels of acquisition was used as covariates in an analysis of covariance. There were overall larger responses from the left hand recording.

Fear-potentiated startle using an auditory conditioned stimulus: Effect of lesions of the amygdala

Behavioral momentum theory has evolved within the realm of operant conditioning. The thought-provoking momentum metaphor equates the strength of an operant response with its resistance to change and preference (i.e., choice) for that response over other available responses. Whereas baseline response rate (velocity in the metaphor) is assumed to be largely influenced by the response-reinforcer contingency, resistance to change and preference are assumed to reflect an intervening variable called behavioral mass, which is determined primarily by the stimulus-reinforcer relationship. This invites the question of how well the momentum metaphor applies to the stimulus-reinforcer relationships of traditional Pavlovian paradigms. Presumably, a correspondence exists between behavioral mass and the notion of associative strength in the associative learning literature. Although response rate has little meaning in the trialwise structure of classical (i.e., Pavlovian) conditioning, response probability or magnitude might be regarded metaphorically as velocity. Momentum theory suggests that resistance to change (e.g., extinction) is a better indicator of associative strength than is response probability or magnitude. Therefore, variables that strengthen Pavlovian learning should influence resistance to extinction of conditioned responding in a similar manner. Moreover, it is important to assess momentum theory outside of strictly operant paradigms, particularly because in clinical settings many common disorders (e.g., phobias) and their therapies (e.g., cue exposure) are thought to be classically conditioned.

Preconditioning experience with the unconditional stimulus (UCS) retards subsequent excitatory conditioning. Three experiments demonstrated that this UCS retardation effect is attenuated by associative manipulations of contextual stimuli of the UCS preexposure environment. The UCS retardation effect was reduced by (a) altering contextual stimuli between preexposure and conditioning (Experiment 1), (b) latently inhibiting contextual stimuli prior to UCS preexposure (Experiment 2), and (c) extinguishing contextual stimuli subsequent to UCS preexposure (Experiment 3). Although UCS preexposure retarded excitatory conditioning, the results of Experiment 4 demonstrated that UCS preexposure facilitated inhibitory conditioning. These results indicate that an association between contextual stimuli and the preexposed UCS contributes to the effects of preconditioning UCS experience on subsequent learning.

Adrenalectomy exacerbates stress-induced impairment in fear discrimination: A causal role for kynurenic acid?