Search results for "CONDITIONING"

Role of the nNOS gene in ethanol-induced conditioned place preference in mice

2009

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) has a role in synaptic plasticity, and evidence suggests its role in a range of effects produced by alcohol in the central nervous system. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of the nNOS gene in the development of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in mice. The CPP paradigm is designed to investigate the reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse and the development of maladaptive behaviors, such as conditioned response to drug-associated stimuli, following repeated drug exposure. Adult male and female wild type (WT) and nNOS knockout (KO) mice on a mixed B6; 129S genetic background were t…

Preconditioning of the generalist herbivore Trialeurodes vaporariorum to greenhouse monocultures and its subsequent performance on wild polycultures

2016

Generalist herbivores can face many challenges when choosing their host plant. This can be particularly difficult if their choice and performance are affected by host experience. Greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is an invasive generalist herbivore, which has established in year-round greenhouses at northern latitudes where it cannot overwinter outdoors. It mainly uses crops such as cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), and ornamentals as host plants. However, every summer the insect escapes greenhouses and is exposed to natural vegetation. We evaluated the performance of T. vaporariorum on diverse vegetation outside…

Trace eyeblink conditioning and extinction contingent to hippocampal ripples in rabbits

2014

Rats with elevated genetic risk for metabolic syndrome exhibit cognitive deficiencies when young

2021

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a known risk factor for cognitive decline. Using polygenic rat models selectively bred for high and low intrinsic exercise capacity and simultaneously modelling as low and high innate risk factor for MetS respectively, we have previously shown that adult animals with lower exercise capacity/higher MetS risk perform poorly in tasks requiring flexible cognition. However, it is not known whether these deficits in cognition are present already at young age. Also, it is unclear whether the high risk genome is related also to lower-level cognition, such as sensory gating measured as prepulse inhibition. In this study, young and adult (5-8 weeks and ∼9 months) rats sel…

Rats bred for low intrinsic aerobic exercise capacity link obesity with brain inflammation and reduced structural plasticity of the hippocampus.

2021

Abstract BACKGROUND Increasing evidence shows obesity and poor metabolic health are associated with cognitive deficits, but the mechanistic connections have yet to be resolved. We studied rats selectively bred for low and high intrinsic aerobic capacity in order to test the association between low physical fitness, a genetic predisposition for obesity, and brain health. We hypothesized that low-capacity runner (LCR) rats with concurrently greater levels of adiposity would have increased hippocampal inflammation and reduced plasticity compared to the more physically fit high-capacity runner (HCR) rats. METHODS We examined markers for inflammation and brain plasticity in the hippocampi of LCR…

Genotype determining aerobic exercise capacity associates with behavioral plasticity in middle-aged rats

2023

Good aerobic fitness associates positively with cognitive performance and brain health and conversely, low aerobic fitness predisposes to neurodegenerative diseases. To study how genotype together with exercise, started at older age, affects brain and behavior, we utilized rats that differ in inherited aerobic fitness. Rats bred for Low Capacity for Running (LCR) are shown to display less synaptic plasticity and more inflammation in the hippocampus and perform worse than rats bred for a High Capacity for Running (HCR) in tasks requiring flexible cognition. Here we used middle-aged (∼ 16 months) HCR and LCR rats to study how genotype and sex associate with anxiety and neural information filt…

Transkraniaalisen tasavirtastimulaation vaikutukset erottelu- ja käänteisoppimiseen sekä reagointiherkkyyden muutoksiin

2017

Transkraniaalisella tasavirtastimulaatiolla (tDCS) tarkoitetaan menetelmää, jossa johdetaan heikkoa sähkövirtaa aivokudosten läpi elektrodilta toiselle. Tutkimusten mukaan tDCS:lla näyttäisi olevan monenlaisia kliinisiä ja kognitiivisia vaikutuksia aina masennuksen hoidosta työmuistin parantamiseen. Tulokset ovat kuitenkin monin paikoin varsin ristiriitaisia, eikä stimulaation tarkoista vaikutusmekanismeistakaan olla päästy varmuuteen. Tässä tutkimuksessa halusimme tutkia kokeellisesti tDCS:n vaikutuksia erottelu- ja käänteisoppimiseen sekä reagointiherkkyyden muutoksiin silmäniskuehdollistumisen avulla. Kokeeseen osallistui 39 iältään 18-29-vuotiasta koehenkilöä. Tutkittavat jaettiin kahte…

The Underestimated Significance of Conditioning in Placebo Hypoalgesia and Nocebo Hyperalgesia

2018

Placebo and nocebo effects are intriguing phenomena in pain perception with important implications for clinical research and practice because they can alleviate or increase pain. According to current theoretical accounts, these effects can be shaped by verbal suggestions, social observational learning, and classical conditioning and are necessarily mediated by explicit expectation. In this review, we focus on the contribution of conditioning in the induction of placebo hypoalgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia and present accumulating evidence that conditioning independent from explicit expectation can cause these effects. Especially studies using subliminal stimulus presentation and implicit con…

Influence of Perceptual and Conceptual Information on Fear Generalization : A Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Study

2021

Learned fear can be generalized through both perceptual and conceptual information. This study investigated how perceptual and conceptual similarities influence this generalization process. Twenty-three healthy volunteers completed a fear-generalization test as brain activity was recorded in the form of event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants were exposed to a de novo fear acquisition paradigm with four categories of conditioned stimuli (CS): two conceptual cues (animals and furniture); and two perceptual cues (blue and purple shapes). Animals (C+) and purple shapes (P+) were paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US), whereas furniture (C−) and blue shapes (P−) never were. The gener…

Effect of energy density on liking and on caloric adjustment conditioning after sweet beverage exposure in children aged 8-11 y

2014

The contribution of sweet beverages to weight gain in children and adolescents is controversial. The present study was conducted to study, in 8-11 year-old children, the influence of energy conditioning on liking and on caloric adjustment after sweet beverages exposure. We also studied the stability of the conditioning effects after a period without exposure and an extinction period. Children (n = 44) were exposed to 2 flavored sweetened beverages: a high energy version (HE: 150kcal) and a no energy version (NE: 0kcal). During a 4-wk conditioning period, children were exposed either 2 or 7 times to each beverage. During a 3-wk stability period children were not exposed to any beverage. Duri…