6533b7cffe1ef96bd1259144
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Activity in the rabbit somatosensory cortex reflects the active procedural memory trace of a classically conditioned eyeblink response.
Timo RuusuvirtaTapani KorhonenJan Wikgrensubject
EfferentCentral nervous systemConditioning ClassicalSomatosensory systemProcedural memory03 medical and health sciences0302 clinical medicineMemoryEvoked Potentials SomatosensorymedicineAnimals0501 psychology and cognitive sciences050102 behavioral science & comparative psychologyNictitating MembraneBlinkingGeneral NeuroscienceMemoria05 social sciencesClassical conditioningSomatosensory CortexConditioning EyelidElectrophysiologyElectrophysiologymedicine.anatomical_structureEyeblink conditioningRabbitsPsychologyNeuroscience030217 neurology & neurosurgerydescription
Behavioral responses and neural responses in the somatosensory cortex were recorded in nine rabbits during the unpaired and paired treatments of classical eyeblink conditioning with a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and an airpuff unconditioned stimulus. During the unpaired treatment, neither the behavioral nor neural responses to the CS were observed. During the paired treatment, behavioral conditioned response (CR), accompanied by neural activity, was developed. In well-trained animals occasional failures to elicit the CR were accompanied by an absence of neural responses. Nevertheless, the CS modified the behavioral unconditioned response in paired trials, implying that the CR-failures could not reflect the inability of the CS to modulate the pathways triggering the behavior constituting the CR. Thus, a close link between CR elicitation and somatosensory cortical neural response was established. Our finding suggests that this neural activity to a tone CS during classical eyeblink conditioning reflects an efferent copy of the procedural memory trace.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-04-11 | Neuroscience letters |