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1
Stanhope, Kelly Jean. "Reinforcer representations in Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.257041.
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Murphy, Robin A. J. "Relative contingency learning in Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0026/NQ50226.pdf.
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Harmer, Catherine Jane. "Environmental manipulations of appetitive Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, University of York, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265664.
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Dopson, Jemma. "Fate of irrelevant stimuli in Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2009. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54505/.
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This thesis investigated the fate of irrelevant stimuli in Pavlovian conditioning. In Chapter 1, several theories of learning were evaluated with respect to findings related to blocking (Kamin, 1969) and the relative validity effect (Wagner, Logan, Haberlandt & Price 1968). The majority of these theories explain such effects by assuming that little is learned about irrelevant stimuli (e.g. Rescorla & Wagner, 1972 Mackintosh, 1975a Pearce & Hall, 1980). In contrast, the comparator hypothesis (e.g. Miller and Matzel, 1988) makes the assumption that learning about irrelevant stimuli occurs, but is not expressed. The three experiments reported in Chapter 2 tested this assumption using an extended version of the blocking procedure. In each case, an arrangement which, according to the comparator hypothesis, should cause a reversal of blocking failed to produce this result. The findings were, however, consistent with theories which assume that little is learned about irrelevant stimuli. The experiments reported in Chapters 3,4 and 5 were conducted to determine whether little is learned about these stimuli because animals do not attend to them (e.g. Mackintosh, 1975a Pearce & Hall, 1980). Discrimination training designed to measure associability changes was given, using an autoshaping procedure with pigeons, and a Pavlovian conditioning procedure with rats. The results ruled out several non-attentional interpretations, and suggested that an attentional process was involved, which, rather than directing the eyes towards relevant stimuli and away from irrelevant stimuli, operated once all stimuli had been perceived. The results were consistent with the theory of attention proposed by Mackintosh, although it is acknowledged that this theory has its limitations. In the final chapter, two hybrid theories that overcome these limitations were discussed.
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Cohen, Sabrina Rachel. "Understanding the origin of Pavlovian-instrumental interactions." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/51263/.
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This thesis investigates interactions between Pavlovian and instrumental processes. The first chapter provides an evaluation of various theoretical analyses of how these two processes might interact in the context of two types of phenomena: Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) and the renewal of instrumental responses that have been extinguished. It is argued that the conditions under which both phenomena are observed do not sit readily with the theoretical analyses that have been offered for them. Chapter 2 reports three experiments that examined the conditions under which outcome-selective and general PIT occur in rats. Outcome-selective PIT was not increased by procedures that should increase the distinctiveness of the outcomes; but general PIT was more likely to be observed under conditions in which the distinctiveness of the outcomes should be low (Experiments 1-3). Chapter 3 contrasted the standard stimulus-outcome-response analysis of outcome-selective PIT with a novel theoretical analysis based on mediated stimulus-response associations that directly affect test performance (i.e., without the outcome becoming activated during the test). Experiment 4 demonstrated an outcome-selective PIT effect when the outcome (O) was embedded in the Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (S), and Experiments 5 and 6 showed that outcome-selective PIT was more likely to be observed after backward pairings (i.e., O-S) than after forward pairings (i.e., S-O). These results are consistent with the following analysis: Instrumental training establishes response-outcome and outcome-response associations, and during subsequent backward conditioning the outcome provokes its associated instrumental response during the stimulus and thereby allows a stimulus–response association to be acquired. This stimulus-response association then directly generates outcome-selective PIT at test. Experiment 7 provided direct evidence to support the ix assumptions upon which this analysis relies. These results, together with other paradoxical effects of the Pavlovian relationship, are incongruent with accounts of outcome-selective PIT that rely on a stimulus-outcome-response chain. Chapter 4 explored another instance where Pavlovian stimuli exert a powerful influence on instrumental performance: the case of instrumental renewal. Two fundamental issues were addressed: whether or not direct Pavlovian associations are responsible for the renewal effect, and whether or not renewed responses are controlled by goal-directed processes or stimulus-response associations. In Experiment 8, instrumental renewal was observed without concomitant involvement of any excitatory or inhibitory Pavlovian properties of the contexts involving the outcome; and in Experiment 9, renewed responding was sensitive to the current value of the outcome. Taken together, these results suggest that the extinction context exerts a direct (or hierarchical) inhibitory influence on the instrumental response-outcome association, the removal of which allows the impact of the response-outcome association of performance to be revealed. Chapter 5 explores the broader implications of these results for current theoretical analyses that rely on the idea that Pavlovian and instrumental processes interact through shared access to the features of the outcome.
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Urcelay, Gonzalo Pablo. "Potentiation and overshadowing in Pavlovian fear conditioning." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2008.
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Overduin, Barend Jan Joost. "Pavlovian conditioning and binge eating some empirical explorations /." Maastricht : Maastricht : Rijksuniversiteit Limburg ; University Library, Maastricht University [Host], 1996. http://arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=6270.
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Swan, J. "The role of predictive accuracy in Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, Bucks New University, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.378415.
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Parkinson, John Anthony. "Limbic cortico-striatal circuitry underlying Pavlovian associative learning." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625012.
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Farbstein, Rebecca Ann. "Pavlovian portable art : socio-technical process, aesthetic context." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.611263.
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Seabrooke, Tina. "Controlled and automatic processes in Pavlovian-instrumental transfer." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/8550.
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The current research aimed to further current knowledge on the psychological processes that underpin human outcome-selective Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) effects. PIT reflects the capacity of a Pavlovian stimulus to selectively potentiate an instrumental response that predicts a common rewarding outcome. PIT effects are often suggested to reflect a relatively automatic S-O-R mechanism, where the stimulus activates the sensory properties of the outcome, which then automatically triggers associated instrumental responses. The current research tested this S-O-R account of PIT against a propositional expected utility theory, which suggests that PIT effects reflect verbalizable inferences about the probability and value of each outcome. Chapter 1 reviews the relevant literature. Chapters 2-4 then report 11 experiments that aimed to set the S-O-R and propositional theories against one another. In Chapter 2, two experiments demonstrated that PIT is sensitive to a reversal instruction (Experiment 2), but is robust against a time pressure (Experiment 1) and concurrent load (Experiment 2) manipulation. Chapter 3 details the development of a novel outcome devaluation procedure, and reports four experiments that examined the effect of both outcome devaluation and verbal instructions on PIT. These experiments demonstrated that a typical PIT procedure produces PIT effects that are insensitive to a very strong devaluation manipulation. Furthermore, PIT effects were observed for a devalued outcome even when an S-O-R mechanism was unlikely to control behaviour. Chapter 4 reports five experiments that show that PIT is highly sensitive to outcome devaluation when multiple outcomes and responses are cued on every transfer test trial. Chapter 5 therefore concludes that, on balance, the results provide converging support for the propositional expected utility theory of PIT.
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Ebrahimi, Claudia. "Neural mechanisms and pharmacological modulation of Pavlovian learning." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/22354.
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Einige psychische Störungen, darunter Angst- und Suchterkrankungen, zeichnen sich durch eine abnorme Beteiligung basaler assoziativer Lernprozesse aus. Pawlow’sche Rückfallphänomene den langfristigen Erfolg extinktionsbasierter Therapien. Damit kommt der Untersuchung pharmakologischer Interventionen zur Unterstützung des Extinktionslernens bzw. -abrufs eine zentrale Bedeutung zu.
Die vorliegende Dissertation umfasst vier Studien und bedient sich translationaler Pawlow’scher Lernmodelle, um (i) behaviorale und neuronale Mechanismen appetitiver Pawlow’scher Rückfallphänomene beim Menschen zu untersuchen (Studien I und II) sowie (ii) den Effekt des partiellen NMDA Rezeptor Agonisten D-Cycloserin (DCS) zur Unterstützung des Extinktionslernens appetitiver und aversiver Stimuli zu testen (Studien III und IV).
Studie I demonstriert, dass appetitive Pawlow’sche Rückfalleffekte im Labor untersucht werden können und lieferte Evidenz für differenzielle Einflüsse der Amygdala und des vmPFC beim Wiederauftreten der konditionierten Reaktion. Studie II belegt die Sensitivität verschiedener, teilweise neuer okularer Reaktionsmaße für die appetitive Konditionierungsforschung. Studie III zeigte, dass DCS mit einer attenuierten BOLD-Antwort in der Amygdala und einer gesteigerten funktionellen Amygdala-vmPFC Konnektivität während des appetitiven Extinktionsabrufs assoziiert war. Studie IV ergab, dass Probanden der DCS- Gruppe attenuierte Arousal Ratings wie auch neuronale Aktivierungen in der Amygdala und dem posterioren Hippocampus im Vergleich zur Placebo-Gruppe aufwiesen.
Die vorliegende Arbeit erweitert unser Verständnis appetitiver Pawlow’scher Rückfallphänomene und weist dem vmPFC eine bedeutsame Rolle beim Extinktionsabruf zu. Weiterhin unterstützt sie die Hypothese, dass DCS das Extinktionslernen unterstützt und damit Rückfallphänomene reduziert.Pavlovian learning mechanisms play an important role in the development, maintenance, and relapse of psychiatric conditions like drug addiction and anxiety disorders. Pavlovian relapse phenomena challenge the long-term success of extinction-based exposure treatments. As such, investigating pharmacological adjuncts that could help to improve extinction learning or long- term retention are of great clinical importance. This dissertation comprises four studies applying translational human laboratory models of Pavlovian learning (i) to characterize the behavioral and neural mechanisms of appetitive Pavlovian relapse (Studies I and II), and (ii) to investigate D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial NMDA receptor agonist, as a pharmacological adjunct to augment Pavlovian extinction learning of appetitive and aversive stimuli (Studies III and IV). In Study I, we showed that appetitive Pavlovian relapse can be successfully modeled in the laboratory and provided evidence for opposing roles of amygdala and vmPFC in mediating the return of conditioned responding. Study II showed the usefulness of different and partly novel ocular response measures for appetitive conditioning research. Finally, we found DCS to attenuate amygdala reactivity during appetitive extinction recall and enhance amygdala-vmPFC coupling (Study III). Corroborating these results, Study IV showed DCS to reduce return of fear on behavioral arousal ratings and in brain areas associated with defense reactions like amygdala and posterior hippocampus. Overall, the present work extends evidence on experimentally induced return of fear to the appetitive research domain and suggests an overarching regulatory role of the vmPFC during extinction recall. Finally, it supports the hypothesis that DCS can augment extinction learning, thereby reducing the risk of relapse phenomena.
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Garfield, Joshua Benjamin Bernard Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "FG7142 attenuates expression of overexpectation in Pavlovian fear conditioning." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/43241.
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The experiments reported in this thesis studied the mechanisms of expression of overexpectation of conditioned fear, as measured by freezing. In Stage I, rats were conditioned to fear a tone and a flashing light conditioned stimulus (CS) through pairings with a 0.5 mA, 1 s shock. In Stage II, overexpectation was trained by the reinforcement of a compound of these CSs with a shock of the same magnitude. Two compound ?? shock pairings produced an overexpectation effect, as measured by freezing to presentations of the tone alone, while further Stage II training caused over-training of overexpectation. Expression of the overexpectation effect produced by two compound ?? shock pairings could be prevented by pre-test injection of the benzodiazepine partial inverse agonist FG7142. This effect was dose-dependent and not due to state-dependent memory. Control experiments suggested that it was also not due to any general effect of FG7142 on the Pavlovian freezing response. Freezing to a tone that had been conditioned, but not subjected to any decremental training procedures, was unaffected by administration of FG7142 before either the conditioning or test session. FG7142 also did not affect freezing to a tone that had been subjected to an associative blocking procedure. The hypothesis that overexpectation of conditioned fear may be context-dependent was also tested. However, renewal was not observed. Rats that received Stage II training in a context distinct from the Stage I training context showed equivalent expression of overexpectation regardless of whether testing was conducted in the Stage I or Stage II training context. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that overexpectation, like extinction, leads to the imposition of a GABAA receptor-mediated mask on the fear CR. Moreover, they suggest that this masking of fear is the specific consequence of negative predictive error.
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Leung, Hiu Tin Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "Spontaneous recovery in Pavlovian fear extinction and latent inhibition." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2009. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/43701.
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The experiments reported in the present thesis examined the behavioural processes of Pavlovian fear extinction and latent inhibition. The first series of experiments studied the reacquisition of extinguished fear responses following different amounts of extinction training. Rapid reacquisition occurred when rats were reconditioned after moderate extinction, showing that the original learning remained intact across this extinction. In contrast, when reconditioning was given after massive extinction, reconditioned responding was first depressed but then spontaneously recovered over time. This suggests that massive extinction produces a relatively permanent loss of the originally learned responding, while additionally imposes on the extinguished CS a transient latent inhibitory process that prevented the immediate but not the delayed expression of reconditioning. The second series of experiments studied the impact of spontaneous recovery of extinguished fear responses on their additional extinction. These experiments demonstrated that a CS that had time to show spontaneous recovery underwent greater response loss across additional extinction than one lacking recovery. They also showed that an excitor extinguished in compound with a CS showing recovery suffered greater response loss than an excitor extinguished in compound with a CS lacking recovery. Further, extinction of a compound composed of two CSs, one showing recovery and a second lacking recovery, produced greater extinction to the CS that showed recovery. These results show that spontaneous recovery of extinguished responses deepens their extinction through an error-correction mechanism regulated by both common and individual error terms. The third series of experiments studied the spontaneous recovery of latently inhibited and extinguished fear responses in within-subject designs. Using a compound test procedure, a CS that had received extensive preexposure or extensive extinction was found to have undergone greater spontaneous recovery relative to a CS just moderately preexposed or moderately extinguished. A CS given a mixed history of preexposure and extinction also underwent greater recovery relative to a CS just preexposed or just extinguished. These results suggest that both latent inhibition and extinction share a transient depressive process, and that the resulting recovery of responding is proportional to the amount of this depression.
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Morvan, Cecile I. "Mesolimbic Dopamine Involvement in Pavlovian and Operant Approach Behaviors." Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1334.
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Thesis advisor: Jon C. HorvitzPrevious research has yielded conflicting results regarding the involvement of mesolimbic dopamine in Pavlovian and operant tasks. While there is abundant evidence that an operant lever press requires intact dopamine (DA) D1 transmission in the nucleus accumbens (ACB) and in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), there is conflicting evidence regarding the specific brain sites at which DA mediates a Pavlovian approach response. The present study was designed to compare the effects of ACB and BLA D1 receptor-blockade on an operant and Pavlovian task, while minimizing differences in behavioral response topography. Animals were trained on either a Pavlovian cued approach task or an operant cued nosepoke task. In the Pavlovian approach task, a tone signaled a pellet delivery to which animals responded with a head entry into a food compartment. In the operant nosepoke task, animals were trained to emit a nosepoke in response to the same tone, in order to trigger a pellet delivery. Bilateral microinfusions of the D1 antagonist SCH 23390 (0, 1 or 2 microgram/side) into either the ACB or the BLA produced a dose-dependent disruption of the operant nosepoke. In contrast, the Pavlovian cued approach response was unaffected by D1 antagonist microinfusions into either the ACB or the BLA. In addition, infusion of SCH 23390 into either site suppressed general locomotion. The results suggest a dissociation of the anatomical substrates mediating an operant nosepoke and a Pavlovian approach, despite similar response topographies. These findings are consistent with the notion that D1 activity at the ACB and BLA plays a role in the expression of operant responses, but not in the expression of Pavlovian approach responses
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology
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Théberge, Florence Rose Marie. "Striatal mechanisms of Pavlovian drug memories and their reconsolidation." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.611348.
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Levita, Liat. "Pavlovian aversive conditioning : the role of the nucleus accumbens." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.621288.
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Jones, Dirk Andrew. "Functional neuroanatomy of blocking and inhibition of Pavlovian conditioning /." Digital version accessible at:, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Alarcón, Daniel. "The specific Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) effect in humans." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32733/.
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In Pavlovian conditioning subjects learn the predictive relation between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and a motivationally significant unconditioned stimulus (US), while in instrumental conditioning subjects learn the predictive relation between their responses and a motivationally significant outcome. Both types of associative learning interact in the phenomenon known as the Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) effect. In a PIT procedure subjects received Pavlovian conditioning, in which different CSs are paired with different outcomes (CS1→O1; CS2→O2, etc), and instrumental training, in which each of different responses are paired with these outcomes (R1→O1; R2→O2, etc). After this training the CSs are presented while subjects have the opportunity to perform the instrumental responses. Studies have found that the CS presentations affect instrumental performance by elevating the rate of responding, and this effect can take two different forms: general and specific. In general PIT, Pavlovian cues elevate performance of any instrumental responses that have been trained with a reinforcer of a similar motivational valence to the US. But in the specific PIT effect a CS paired with a particular outcome selectively elevates instrumental responses that produce that outcome, compared to its effect on responses producing different outcomes, i.e. CS1: R1 > R2; CS2: R2 > R1. Different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the specific form of the PIT effect but none of these accounts can explain all the evidence that has been found. Some of these mechanisms propose that at test a CS evokes a representation of the outcome that, in turn, elicits those responses trained with that outcome. In contrast, other accounts suggest that the CS elicits responding via a direct association formed during training. The experiments reported in this thesis were conducted to provide further evidence on this phenomenon in order to distinguish between these mechanisms. The experiments presented here used a standard PIT task with humans as participants. In the Pavlovian phase participants received presentations of different neutral fractal images (CSs), which were paired with presentations of drink and food images (outcomes). In the instrumental phase participants had to press two keys on a computer keyboard (instrumental responses), which were reinforced with the outcomes. The specific PIT effect was measured in a test in which participants could perform both instrumental responses in the presence and absence of the Pavlovian cues. The experiments reported in Chapter 2 and 3 made use of a procedure known as conditioned inhibition, in which a conditioned inhibitor (CI) is trained to signal the absence of an expected outcome; it has been proposed that presentations of a CI suppress the activation of an outcome representation. In the experiments presented in Chapter 2 two CIs were established, one for each of the outcomes, while in those reported in Chapter 3 only one CI was trained. In the studies of both chapters the effect of the CIs, both alone and in compound with excitatory CSs, on the specific PIT effect was assessed. The findings revealed that the CIs did not exert any measurable effect when they were presented alone, but they reduced the specific PIT effect produced by the excitatory CSs. In Chapter 4 CSs were trained in either a forward or backward relation with the outcomes and their effect on instrumental performance was also measured. In some of the experiments the CSs trained in a backward relation with the outcome produced the specific PIT effect, while in others they did not. The contributions of both backward and forward associations were also assessed, and the results suggest that only the forward association supported the specific PIT effect. Overall, the findings suggest that the specific PIT effect is mediated by the activation of an outcome representation, although some assumptions are needed in order to explain the data with extant accounts of PIT.
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Hall, J. "The roles of the amygdala and hippocampus in Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.599869.
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This thesis investigates the roles of the amygdala and hippocampus in Pavlovian conditioning. Three questions are addressed. First, what is the involvement of discrete sub-nuclei of the amygdala in Pavlovian conditioning? Second, what molecular processes accompany the retrieval of Pavlovian associations? Third, what changes in gene expression are induced during the acquisition of a Pavlovian association? The basolateral region of the amygdala (BLA) is widely believed to represent the site of CS-US association in Pavlovian conditioning. Recent experiments have however suggested that the BLA may play a more restricted role in Pavlovian conditioning, and that other nuclei and within and outside the amygdala can support the formation of Pavlovian associations. In a first series of experiments the effect of BLA lesions on aversive Pavlovian conditioning were investigated. Lesions of the BLA were found to disrupt conditioning to both discrete and contextual stimuli, as assessed by conditioned freezing, but the effect of BLA lesions on contextual conditioning was ameliorated by additional training. In a second group of experiments the effect of amygdala lesions on the ability of Pavlovian cues to motivate instrumental responding (Pavlovian to instrumental transfer, PIT) was studied. Lesions of the BLA were found to be without effect on PIT, but lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeN) abolished this effect, as did lesions of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) core. These results demonstrate that there are dissociable roles of the BLA and CeN within Pavlovian conditioning, and suggest that the CeN and NAcc core interact in PIT.
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Rigby, Peter Thomas. "Synaptic plasticity processes underlying consolidation and reconsolidation of Pavlovian conditioning." Thesis, University of Bath, 2013. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607146.
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In the field of drug addiction, relapse back to drug seeking and taking is the major unmet clinical need. The rate of relapse back to drug-taking is ~70-80% within a year of drug abstinence. Gaining a better understanding of the prolonged neuronal changes that have taken place during drug addiction may lead to the design of better anti-relapse therapies. It is now widely believed that one component of drug addiction is by aberrant learning and memory processes. To study this, we investigated synaptic changes caused by the development of drug-seeking behaviour in C57BL/6J mice. Mice were treated either with non-contingent morphine or trained to exhibit drug-seeking behaviour following morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) training, hippocampal slices were taken from these animals and synaptic changes examined at the CA3-CA1 synapse using electrophysiological methods. Mice that underwent morphine CPP were demonstrated to exhibit a significant preference for the morphine paired compartment before ex vivo electrophysiological analysis. Using field recordings, both non-contingent morphine and morphine CPP treatments resulted in a reduced ability to undergo stimulus-induced LTP compared to their respective controls. Whole cell patch clamp was then utilised to further investigate these effects. Non-contingent morphine treatment resulted in both pre- and post-synaptic changes with an increased AMPA:NMDA receptor ratio, concurrent increases in cell size, and reductions in the release probability of both glutamate and GABA. Morphine CPP treatment resulted in a more variable increase in AMPA:NMDA receptor ratio (presumably by the same mechanism but in a more specific group of neurones) and GABA release probability was also decreased. There were no detected increases in cell size however, or any detected changes in glutamate release probability. These findings therefore reveal a set of synaptic adaptations in the hippocampus unique to morphine-induced behavioural change, and may provide targets for future intervention in drug addiction.
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Ebrahimi, Claudia [Verfasser]. "Neural mechanisms and pharmacological modulation of Pavlovian learning / Claudia Ebrahimi." Berlin : Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021. http://d-nb.info/1228858543/34.
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Chow, Jonathan J. "EXAMINING MEMORY CONSOLIDATION AND RECONSOLIDATION IN AN APPETITIVE PAVLOVIAN TASK." UKnowledge, 2015. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/psychology_etds/84.
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Memory plays an important role in defining how one behaves. The neurobiological mechanisms of memory have been studied extensively in animal models and the NMDA glutamate receptor has been identified to play an important role in the consolidation and reconsolidation of appetitive memories. Certain memories, depending on what was learned, can function differently and can be more difficult to disrupt based on a number of factors. Currently, no study has examined whether or not a reward-predictive stimulus attributed with incentive value is more difficult to disrupt than a stimulus that functions as a general reward-predictor. To determine the role of the NMDA receptor on memory consolidation with different functioning reward-predictive stimuli rats underwent a Pavlovian conditioned approach, where a post-session NMDA receptor antagonist was administered daily. Furthermore, to determine the role of the NMDA receptor on memory reconsolidation, another set of rats were trained on a Pavlovian conditioned approach task, after training was complete rats were presented with a reward-predictive stimuli followed by an administration of a NMDA receptor antagonist and then re-tested.
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Garbusow, Maria, Daniel J. Schad, Christian Sommer, Elisabeth Jünger, Miriam Sebold, Eva Friedel, Jean Wendt, et al. "Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer in Alcohol Dependence: A Pilot Study." Karger, 2014. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A71629.
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Background: Pavlovian processes are thought to play an important role in the development, maintenance and relapse of alcohol dependence, possibly by influencing and usurping ongoing thought and behavior. The influence of pavlovian stimuli on ongoing behavior is paradigmatically measured by pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks. These involve multiple stages and are complex. Whether increased PIT is involved in human alcohol dependence is uncertain. We therefore aimed to establish and validate a modified PIT paradigm that would be robust, consistent and tolerated by healthy controls as well as by patients suffering from alcohol dependence, and to explore whether alcohol dependence is associated with enhanced PIT. Methods: Thirty-two recently detoxified alcohol-dependent patients and 32 age- and gender-matched healthy controls performed a PIT task with instrumental go/no-go approach behaviors. The task involved both pavlovian stimuli associated with monetary rewards and losses, and images of drinks. Results: Both patients and healthy controls showed a robust and temporally stable PIT effect. Strengths of PIT effects to drug-related and monetary conditioned stimuli were highly correlated. Patients more frequently showed a PIT effect, and the effect was stronger in response to aversively conditioned CSs (conditioned suppression), but there was no group difference in response to appetitive CSs. Conclusion: The implementation of PIT has favorably robust properties in chronic alcohol-dependent patients and in healthy controls. It shows internal consistency between monetary and drug-related cues. The findings support an association of alcohol dependence with an increased propensity towards PIT.
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Morse, Ashleigh. "The Determinants of Specific Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16289.
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In the service of their basic needs and desires, animals and humans can use information from their environment to guide their choice between actions. In the laboratory, the ability for reward-predictive cues to control action selection is studied through outcome-specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT-S), in which a stimulus associated with a particular outcomes biases choice between actions towards the response that earned that same outcome. This thesis investigates the determinants of PIT-S within the nucleus accumbens shell (NAc-S), which is selectively recruited to mediate PIT-S, and is not involved in encoding Pavlovian or instrumental associations. Previous work indicated that delta-opioid receptor (DOR) accumulation at the membrane of cholinergic interneurons (CIN-m) in the NAc-S is triggered during Pavlovian learning, and is positively correlated with PIT-S performance. We took three approaches to investigating the role of DOR accumulation: behavioural and pharmacological manipulation of established receptor accumulation, and chemogenetic manipulation of CINs and the afferents that likely utilize DOR accumulation within the NAc-S to mediate PIT-S. Manipulations of the predictive status of Pavlovian cues that abolished PIT-S failed to reverse established DOR accumulation, suggesting that a region that encodes this information controls the use of DOR accumulation to drive PIT-S. Specific pharmacological internalisation of DOR transiently reduced receptor expression on CIN-m in the NAc-S, indicating that CINs have `memory' for DOR accumulation. PIT-S performance was impaired during the period of DOR reduction, indicating that DOR accumulation on NAc-S CIN-m is necessary, but not sufficient, for PIT-S expression. Inactivation of CINs and BLA terminals within the NAc-S impaired and attenuated PIT-S, respectively. Both contralateral and ipsilateral BLA terminal disconnection from CINs in the NAc-S impaired PIT-S performance, despite ipsilateral BLA-NAc-S disconnection failing to affect PIT-S in previous studies, which complicates our ability to interpret this finding. These findings, considered together, suggest that DOR accumulation on CIN-m is necessary, but not sufficient, for PIT-S, and that a functional circuit between BLA terminals and CINs mediates PIT-S, via DOR accumulation on CIN-m.
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Ryan, Katherine M. "Methodological differences in Pavlovian fear learning, extinction and return of fear." Thesis, Griffith University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/410147.
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Examining methodological differences in fear conditioning and extinction studies is a growing area of research, inspired by the recent ‘replication crisis’ in psychological research. Determining whether methodological differences of fear conditioning and extinction paradigms contribute to inconsistent findings is important in terms of the translational value of this paradigm as an experimental analogue of exposure-based cognitive behavioural therapy. The aim of this thesis was to improve the experimental methodology of fear conditioning and extinction studies, by addressing three key questions: 1) Are there parameters of fear conditioning and extinction tasks that differentiate successful from unsuccessful extinction in studies with children and youth; 2) Do different types and combinations of within-phase subjective measures affect within-phase physiological and between-phase measures of fear conditioning and extinction; and 3) Does behavioural memory reconsolidation in the form of cue reactivation with versus without instructions differentially impact extinction and return of fear?
Question one was addressed by conducting a systematic review of 35 fear conditioning and extinction studies conducted with children and adolescents (Chapter 2, Ryan et al., 2019). This review revealed that successful extinction was observed in studies that used fear irrelevant shapes (CS) and tones (US) (recommended for all youth) or fear relevant faces (CS) and screams (US) (recommended only for adolescents) as well as those studies that used 8 – 12 CS trials per acquisition and extinction phase. The most commonly used and effective dependent measures were skin conductance responses (SCRs) and subjective ratings of CS valence, fearfulness and arousal. Fear potentiated startle (FPS) was also effective, however less commonly used with children. It was suggested that standard measures be adopted for subjective ratings
scales to assist in comparisons across studies. It was recommended that both physiological measures of SCRs and/or FPS be assessed, as well as within-phase subjective measures of US expectancy ratings and CS evaluations and between-phase measures of CS valence, CS arousal and subjective anxiety. Also, additional measures of contingency awareness and US intensity and pleasantness after the conditioning phase was recommended. The review identified unresolved issues and directions for future research to further clarify the most effective designs and measures.
The first experimental study (Chapter 3, Ryan et al., 2021) aimed to address one of the issues identified in Ryan et al. (2019) relating to whether different combinations of within-phase subjective measures of US expectancy and CS evaluations would influence skin conductance responses and between-phase subjective ratings of CS valence, CS arousal and subjective anxiety. The fear conditioning and extinction study involved 88 participants aged between 17- 25 years recruited from first year university psychology students. The Control condition (N =22) included the assessment of SCRs and between-phase ratings. Relative to the Control condition, the US Expectancy condition (N= 21) additionally included within-phase US expectancy ratings throughout each phase, the CS Evaluation condition (N = 21) additionally included within-phase CS evaluations, and the All Measures condition (N = 23) additionally included both within-phase US expectancy and CS evaluations. Within-phase subjective measures influenced learning by changes in arousal measured by SCRs, however they did not influence between-phase ratings. Rating the within-phase US expectancy alone resulted in successful conditioning, extinction and extinction retention of differential SCRs. Providing the within-phase CS evaluation alone resulted in successful conditioning but no extinction of differential SCRs although extinction did occur at the end of the test phase. For the control condition (no within-phase measures), there was also no extinction of SCRs that remained until the end of the test phase. Rating both within-
phase measures resulted in successful conditioning and extinction of differential SCRs; however, the arousal was elevated compared to other conditions. The All measures condition also had a return of differential SCRs during the test phase. It was concluded that researchers need to consider the aims and objectives of their study because different types and combinations of within-phase subjective ratings may influence the outcomes.
The second experimental study (Chapter 4, Ryan et al., under review) investigated a notable methodological difference in behavioural memory reconsolidation studies, in which some studies but not others include instructions before the cue reactivation manipulation. The goal was to determine whether instructions influence extinction and the return of differential fear responses. Participants were recruited from first year university psychology students (N = 109) with an age range of 17 - 40 years. Four conditions tested the role of instructions on cue reactivation by presenting the cue with (CS+ Instruct) and without instructions (CS+ Only) relative to two conditions that controlled for the role of instructions alone (Instruct Only) and no cue or instructions (Control). Participants completed acquisition, extinction and test phases within a single session, using fear relevant dog pictures and an aversive auditory unconditional stimulus (US). Measures included skin conductance responses (SCRs), within-phase US expectancy, between-phase CS evaluations and subjective anxiety. No condition differences were found - all conditions demonstrated extinction retention of SCRs in the test phase. There were also no condition differences in US expectancy ratings within-phase and CS evaluations between-phase. Subjective anxiety ratings also showed no differences between conditions, although fear reduced after extinction for all conditions. The findings found no support for instructions before cue reactivation and no support for behavioural memory reconsolidation.
Three general conclusions were drawn from the results of the systematic review and the two experimental studies: 1) Parameters of fear conditioning and extinction tasks can differentiate successful from unsuccessful extinction; 2) Different types and combinations of within-phase subjective measures affect physiological measures of fear conditioning and extinction studies; and 3) Cue reactivation with or without instructions during behavioural memory consolidation does not impact extinction and the return of fear. Future research implications and recommendations are discussed. The findings from the current PhD program of research have methodological implications for future fear conditioning and extinction studies and add to the literature focused on improving scientific rigour and the replication crisis in psychological research.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Applied Psychology
Griffith Health
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Vo, Tang Anna. "The role of ghrelin in Pavlovian and instrumental learning and performance." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/17915.
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Ghrelin is an orexigenic peptide that binds to the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R). While it is known for regulating homeostatic feeding, recent research has revealed a role for ghrelin in reward-seeking. Missing from this research, however, is a systematic investigation into the role of ghrelin in reward-seeking: it is unclear whether ghrelin provides a reward signal, energises instrumental actions that earn palatable foods, or affects the ability of Pavlovian food-paired cues or food itself to invigorate instrumental responding, either generally or through the retrieval of specific associations. Given these phenomena promote overeating and weight gain, this thesis examined the role of ghrelin in Pavlovian and instrumental learning and performance. Overall, it was found that while ghrelin does not participate in Pavlovian or instrumental learning, it does modulate effort/response vigour: GHS-R antagonism attenuated established instrumental and progressive ratio responding for palatable food in rats. GHS-R antagonism had no effect on outcome devaluation, confirming that ghrelin affects instrumental responding by modulating effort/response vigour and not a change in outcome value. GHS-R antagonism had no effect on the return of responding driven by re-exposure to food after extinction (outcome-induced and outcome-specific reinstatement), and attenuated the general but not specific form of Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT). Thus, ghrelin is also involved in the ability of Pavlovian food-paired cues to enhance instrumental responding based on a general excitatory relationship with food reward. As ghrelin levels fluctuate with changes in hunger/satiety, this thesis also investigated whether changes in ghrelin signalling recapitulate the effects of hunger/satiety. Generally, satiety had similar effects but was a more consistent modulator of instrumental performance and general PIT.
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Leonard, Sarah. "Mediated learning in the rat : implications for perceptual learning." Thesis, University of York, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265556.
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Morutto, Sara Lidia. "Role of the perifornical region of the lateral hypothalamus in appetitive conditioning." Thesis, University of York, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.288040.
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Day, Jeremy Jason Carelli Regina M. "Nucleus accumbens neurons encode Pavlovian approach behaviors evidence from an autoshaping paradigm /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,848.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.Title from electronic title page (viewed Dec. 18, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology." Discipline: Psychology; Department/School: Psychology.
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Ulmen, Adam Richard. "The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 renders pavlovian fear conditioning state-dependent." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1430140456.
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Villarreal, Ronald Paul. "Pavlovian conditioning of social affiliative behavior in the Mongolian gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Quail, Stephanie Louise. "The Associative Mechanism & Neural Correlates of Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer in Humans." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18244.
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The ability to adapt to a changing environment requires the ability to extract predictive information to guide future action. Predictive information regarding the relationship between the performance of an action, or some external stimulus, and the delivery of a rewarding outcome can influence behaviour. Additionally, these processes can interact; reward-predictive stimuli can influence action-selection and guide choice, effects that can be examined in the laboratory using tests of Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT). In these tests, a stimulus associated with a specific outcome biases action-selection towards actions previously been associated with that same outcome (specific transfer – sPIT) whereas a stimulus predicting an outcome not earned by any action can increase the vigour of instrumental responding (general transfer – gPIT). This thesis examines the psychological and neural processes that underlie the expression of PIT in humans. Although extensive research in rodents has attempted to clarify the mechanism through which independently trained Pavlovian stimuli are able to influence action, and the neural circuitry involved in the expression of this effect, to date there has been limited research investigating PIT in humans. To address this, a behavioural task adapted from the rodent literature was used to examine the influence of Pavlovian stimuli on both sPIT and gPIT; i.e., on the effects of predictive stimuli on response bias and response vigour in a comparable manner to the established research in rodents.
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Wachtel, Jonathan Miller. "Pavlovian Conditioning Between Cocaine Stimulant Effects and a Discrete Sensory Cue: Implementation of an Alternating Conditioning Procedure." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1312045624.
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Mathers, Claire. "Motivational mechanisms underlying General Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) : the effects of negative mood." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2015. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/54342/.
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The extent to which motivational mechanisms contribute to reward seeking processes is crucial to our understanding of certain abnormal behaviours, including addiction. Pavlovian conditioning endows reward-associated stimuli with the ability to modulate goal-directed actions for that same reward (Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer; PIT). Learning and motivational theories attempt to describe the processes by which stimuli in the environment acquire incentive properties, attract attention and drive reward-seeking behaviours and bear many resemblances, but there are also important differences. This thesis uses a general PIT model in humans to further our understanding of these discrepancies and investigates the effect mood has on these processes. Firstly, altering the value of the reward affected the rigor of instrumental performance, but the same changes in outcome value did not affect the expectancy of, attention to, or emotional reactivity to the cues suggesting that in Pavlovian learning, apart from the nature of outcomes, the value of outcomes is encoded such that changes in outcome value prevent transfer of a Pavlovian cue's incentive properties to alter goal-directed action. Secondly, the further papers assess the extent to which mood modulates this same action. When under negative mood a general reduction in motivation, driven by an attenuated sensitivity to the reward was observed, as well as a dissociation between aversive and appetitive outcomes. The remaining study explored whether mood altered Pavlovian learning and revealed that those under state negative mood take longer to express their knowledge explicitly and that those under positive mood showed altered attention and emotional responses towards the same stimuli. The approach used in this thesis shows the merits of both motivational and learning theories, and further demonstrates the link between mood and motivation. Additionally, a dissociation between punishment and reward prediction when under negative mood was demonstrated and builds upon this important distinction.
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Murphy, Robin A. J. "Pavlovian conditioning is the consequence of more than just the number of CS-US pairings." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=69630.
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Three Pavlovian conditioning experiments with rats were performed to test predictions from models of associative learning. The procedure in all 3 experiments involved assessing conditioned responding to a Light that was compounded with either perfect or imperfect auditory signals for food. In Experiment 1 a partially reinforced Light which signaled 100% of the food pellets acquired a greater ability to elicit a conditioned response when the auditory cues with which it was paired were relatively poor predictors of the food. In Experiment 2 the Light was still a moderate positive predictor for food, but food was presented both in the presence and absence of the Light. Responding to the Light again was reliably higher when the auditory cues were poor predictors of food. Experiment 3 replicated the results from Experiment 2 and included two control conditions to assess sensitivity to the absolute validity of the Light. In both control conditions the Light was uncorrelated with the US. In one condition the number of food presentations was the same as in the experimental condition, while in the second the number of Light-food pairings was maintained. Results suggested that regardless of the absolute contingency of the Light responding was higher when the auditory cues were uncorrelated with food. These findings suggest that associative models of cue competition make accurate predictions of conditioned behavior following exposure to multiple predictors of reinforcement.
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Washio, Yukiko. "Pavlovian conditioning of LPS-induced TNF-a regulation, sickness behavior and taste aversion in mice." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2008. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3320564.
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Anderson, Lauren C. "Prefrontal Cortex Circuitry in Sex Differences of Context-Mediated Renewal of Appetitive Pavlovian Conditioned Responding." Thesis, Boston College, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107602.
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Thesis advisor: Gorica D. PetrovichLearned associations are formed when cues from the environment are paired with biologically important events and can later drive appetitive and aversive behaviors. These behaviors can persist and reappear after extinction because the original learned associations continue to exist. In particular, cues previously associated with food can later stimulate appetite and food consumption in the absence of hunger. Renewal, or reinstatement, of extinguished conditioned behaviors may help explain the mechanisms underlying persistent responding to food cues and difficulty associated with changing unhealthy eating habits. The aim of this dissertation was to determine key components in the neural circuitry mediating renewal of responding to food cues. The main focus was on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC; includes the infralimbic (ILA) and prelimbic (PL) areas) because that region was selectively recruited during context-dependent renewal (Chapter 3). In all of the experiments, the behavior and neural substrates of male and female rats were compared. It was important to examine both males and females because sex differences in context-mediated renewal were recently established: males consistently show renewal responding while females fail to do so (Chapters 2 and 3). The first study in this dissertation examined whether behavioral sex differences were driven by estradiol (Chapter 2) and whether the vmPFC is recruited during renewal responding (Fos induction; Chapter 3). Then, to establish the vmPFC is causal in driving the behavioral responding during renewal in a sex-specific way (Chapter 4), the vmPFC was silenced in males and stimulated it in females. This was accomplished using a chemogenetic methodology, DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs). Inhibiting the vmPFC in males blocks renewal responding. Reversely, stimulating the vmPFC in females resulted in renewal of responding. To determine key components of the vmPFC circuitry mediating renewal and whether these were different in males and females the experiments in Chapter 5 examined activation of PL inputs using a retrograde tract tracing combined with Fos detection design. The pathways to the PL from the ventral hippocampal formation (subiculum and CA1), the thalamus (anterior paraventricular nucleus), and the amygdala (anterior basolateral nucleus) were recruited in males and not recruited in females. This lack of recruitment could explain the lack of behavioral responding during renewal for females. Taken together, there are distinct and sex-specific circuitries recruited during context-mediated renewal. The findings from these experiments advanced our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying sex differences in associative memory and contextual processing. They are also important for our understanding of the resilience of food cue to influence our consumption and diet choices
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology
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Lesaint, Florian. "Modélisation du conditionnement animal par représentations factorisées dans un système d'apprentissage dual : explication des différences inter-individuelles aux niveaux comportemental et neurophysiologique." Thesis, Paris 6, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014PA066287/document.
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Le conditionnement Pavlovien, l'acquisition de réponses vers des stimuli neutres associés à des récompenses, et le conditionnement instrumental, l'expression de comportements pour atteindre des buts, sont au cœur de nos capacités d'apprentissage. Ils sont souvent étudiés séparément malgré les preuves de leur enchevêtrement. Les modèles de conditionnement instrumental reposent sur le formalisme de l'apprentissage par renforcement (RL), alors que les modèles du conditionnement Pavlovien reposent surtout sur des architectures dédiées souvent incompatibles avec ce formalisme, compliquant l'étude de leurs interactions.Notre objectif est de trouver des concepts, qui combinés à des modèles RL puissent offrir une architecture unifiée permettant une telle étude. Nous développons un modèle qui combine un système RL classique, qui apprend une valeur par état, avec un système RL révisé, évaluant les stimuli séparément et biaisant le comportement vers ceux associés aux récompenses. Le modèle explique certaines réponses inadaptées par l'interaction néfaste des systèmes, ainsi que certaines différences inter-individuelles par une simple variation au niveau de la population de la contribution de chaque système dans le comportement global.Il explique une activité inattendue de la dopamine, vis-à-vis de l'hypothèse qu'elle encode un signal d'erreur, par son calcul sur les stimuli et non les états. Il est aussi compatible avec une hypothèse alternative que la dopamine contribue aussi à rendre certains stimuli recherchés pour eux-mêmes. Le modèle présente des propriétés prometteuses pour l'étude du conditionnement Pavlovien,du conditionnement instrumental et de leurs interactionsPavlovian conditioning, the acquisition of responses to neutral stimuli previously paired with rewards, and instrumental conditioning, the acquisition of goal-oriented responses, are central to our learning capacities. However, despite some evidences of entanglement, they are mainly studied separately. Reinforcement learning (RL), learning by trials and errors to reach goals, is central to models of instrumental conditioning, while models of Pavlovian conditioning rely on more dedicated and often incompatible architectures. This complicates the study of their interactions. We aim at finding concepts which combined with RL models may provide a unifying architecture to allow such a study. We develop a model that combines a classical RL system, learning values over states, with a revised RL system, learning values over individual stimuli and biasing the behaviour towards reward-related ones. It explains maladaptive behaviours in pigeons by the detrimental interaction of systems, and inter-individual differences in rats by a simple variation at the population level in the contribution of each system to the overall behaviour. It explains unexpected dopaminergic patterns with regard to the dominant hypothesis that dopamine parallels a reward prediction error signal by computing such signal over features rather than states, and makes it compatible with an alternative hypothesis that dopamine also contributes to the acquisition of incentive salience, making reward-related stimuli wanted for themselves. The present model shows promising properties for the investigation of Pavlovian conditioning, instrumental conditioning and their interactions
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Keefer, Sara Elizabeth. "The Influence of the Basolateral Amygdala-medial Prefrontal Cortex Circuitry in Appetitive Cue Learning and Valuation." Thesis, Boston College, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107940.
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Thesis advisor: Gorica D. PetrovichEnvironmental cues that are neutral in respect to hunger and feeding can come to predict food through Pavlovian appetitive conditioning. These learned cues can drive food seeking and eating independent of physiological hunger leading to overeating and obesity. However, the food outcome, and thus the value of the cues, can change due to environmental alterations. A change in the values of learned cues requires altering behavioral responses to accurately reflect the cue’s new outcome. This behavioral flexibility is necessary to respond appropriately to changes in the environment and, as such, is an adaptive trait. The aim of this dissertation was to determine critical neural mechanisms specifically within the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and also with its interactions with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during behavioral flexibility when outcomes of learned appetitive cues change using the appetitive reversal learning paradigm. The main focus was on the BLA (Chapter 2) and its connection with the mPFC (Chapters 3 and 4) since both of these areas are critical in appetitive cue learning and valuation and subsequent behavioral modifications. The first study in this dissertation examined if separate neuronal ensembles within the BLA respond to different learned cues, a cue that signals food availability and a cue that does not. Additionally, we investigated if these potentially distinct neuronal ensembles are necessary during periods of behavioral flexibility when the value of the specific learned cues are changed during reversal learning. We determined that there are distinct neuronal ensembles within the BLA that respond to different learned cues, and that the cue-specific ensembles are necessary for updating the value of each specific cue (Chapter 2). Next, we examined a projection target of the BLA, the mPFC, to determine if BLA-projecting neurons are activated during learning (Chapter 3). Using retrograde tract tracing combined with Fos detection, we found recruitment of the anterior BLA to prelimbic area of the mPFC across cue-food learning, signifying that the BLA can inform the mPFC of the value of learned cues. Then to establish that communication between the BLA and mPFC is necessary for cue value learning and updating (Chapter 4), we functionally disconnected communication between these regions and examined appetitive learning using discriminative conditioning, reversal learning, and devaluation paradigms. We found impairments in cue value recall and subsequent updating of the cues’ values during reversal learning. Together, these studies indicate the BLA may be important in informing the mPFC of the value of learned cues, and their interaction is critical to optimally guide behavioral responding. The findings from these experiments are valuable for our understanding of the neural mechanisms that motivate eating behavior under the control of learned food cues and to understand the mechanisms necessary for behavioral flexibility when the outcomes of learned cues are changed
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology
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Prevel, Arthur. "Etude du conditionnement rétrograde dans une procédure de renforcement conditionné." Thesis, Lille 3, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LIL30040/document.
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Chez l’espèce humaine comme pour de nombreuses autres espèces animales, lorsque des stimuli environnementaux précèdent de façon régulière la présentation d’événements importants pour un individu, ces stimuli vont acquérir sous certaines conditions la capacité à évoquer des comportements dits d’anticipation. Cette capacité est considérée par de nombreux auteurs comme ayant une haute valeur adaptative, favorisant le contact avec des événements appétitifs et permettant l’évitement d’événements aversifs. Ces dernières décennies, deschercheurs ont initié un rapprochement entre le phénomène d’anticipation et le conditionnement Pavlovien. Ce rapprochement repose à la fois sur une similarité dans les caractéristiques des événements mis en jeux mais surtout sur de nombreux effets et phénomènes semblables, amenant ces auteurs à considérer que les comportements ditsd’anticipation, d’une façon générale, reposeraient sur le processus Pavlovien. Leconditionnement Pavlovien offre une littérature extrêmement riche dont l’une des principalesquestions de recherche concerne le problème des conditions à l’apparition du processus.Parmi les hypothèses existantes, l’Hypothèse de l’Information est sans aucun doute l’une desplus importantes par son influence. Selon cette hypothèse, un apprentissage associatifPavlovien n’aura lieu que lorsqu’un événement important sera présenté de façon inattendu à un sujet, et l’apprentissage, ou les associations apprises, ne porteront que sur des stimuli prédictifs de l’événement important (i.e. permettant son anticipation). A travers deux expériences appliquant une procédure de conditionnement rétrograde à une procédure de renforcement conditionné, nous avons cherché à tester les propositions faites par cette hypothèse. Nos résultats vont directement à l’encontre de ces propositions et vont au contraire dans le sens de deux autres propositions théoriques faites sur le conditionnement Pavlovien,illustrées par le modèle SOP et l’Hypothèse du Codage Temporel. Ces deux propositions sont testées au sein d’une troisième et dernière expérience, dont les implications pour ces modèles comme pour la conceptualisation du conditionnement Pavlovien et de l’anticipation de façon générale sont discutéesIn human and non-human animals, environmental stimuli that reliably accompany the presentation of significant events are able after repeated exposures of eliciting anticipatory behaviors. Many authors underlined the adaptive value of anticipatory responses, and suggested a connection with Pavlovian conditioning. Linking anticipatory behaviors to Pavlovian conditioning is supported by the similarity in procedure (i.e. a pairing between a neutral stimulus with a significant event), but also on the common effects and phenomena, and the authors assume that Pavlovian conditioning is the process underlying the anticipation of events. This assumption is at the heart of the Information Hypothesis, and more generally of a functional and predictive perspective of Pavlovian conditioning. According to the Information Hypothesis, Pavlovian conditioning only occurs when an unexpected significant event is presented, and learning (i.e. the formation of association) would be about stimuli that allow the anticipation of the significant event. Using a backward conditioning procedure in a conditioned reinforcement preparation, we tested the assumptions made by the Information Hypothesis. The results found argue against the Information Hypothesis and, in contrast, support the assumption made by two others types of leaning models, illustrated by the Temporal Coding Hypothesis and the SOP model. The Temporal Coding Hypothesis and SOP are tested in a third experiment. Implications for Pavlovian conditioning models and anticipatory behaviors in general are discussed
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Newmark, Jordan A. "Sex Differences in Orexin Activation Patterns of Fear-Cue Induced Inhibition of Eating in Rats." Thesis, Boston College, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104427.
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Thesis advisor: Gorica PetrovichThesis advisor: Christina Reppucci
In order to understand the neurobiological basis for the phenomenon in which environmental cues override physiological cues to influence the behavioral control of feeding, we utilized an animal model for fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. Female rats that had learned to associate a tone with foot-shocks showed inhibition of eating across three extinction tests, whereas male rats that had received tone-shock pairings extinguished their inhibition of eating after the first test day. We assessed activation of orexin (ORX), a neuropeptide involved in eating and arousal, in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of the brains of male and female control and experimental rats during the final test day. Female rats exhibited greater recruitment of ORX neurons in the LHA than male rats; there was no difference in ORX activation between control and experimental groups of either sex, indicating that ORX is involved in sex differences in fear-cue induced inhibition of eating
Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2013
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: College Honors Program
Discipline: Psychology
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Kuthyar, Meghana. "Extinction of fear-cue induced inhibition of eating in male and female rats: Activation of brainstem nuclei." Thesis, Boston College, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104426.
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Thesis advisor: Gorica D. PetrovichThesis advisor: Christina Reppucci
We are interested in exploring the instances in which environmental controls can override physiologic or homeostatic cues, and additionally the areas of the brain that might be implicated in such behavioral effects. For this study, we replicated a previously established behavioral finding in which male and female rats show fear-cue induced inhibition of eating, and that female rats take longer than male rats to extinguish this behavior. We assessed brain activation via Fos-expression in the NTS and DMX in the brainstem and found that males had higher brainstem activation than females during extinction of fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. Additionally, female experimental rats had suppressed activity in the caudal NTS compared to female control rats. The data from this study support our hypotheses that there are distinct activation patterns in the brainstem during the extinguishing of inhibition of eating, and that there are sex differences in these activation patterns
Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2013
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology Honors Program
Discipline: Psychology
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Huskey, Alisa Mae. "Computational and Human Learning Models of Generalized Unsafety." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99797.
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The Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress proposes that physiological markers of generalized stress impair learning of safe cues in stressful environments. Based on this model, chronic problems inhibiting physiological arousal lead to a heightened perception of threat, which involves experiencing anxiety symptoms without any obvious precipitating stressful or traumatic event. This investigation aims to determine the impact of stressor- versus context-related emotional learning on generalized unsafety, using a Pavlovian threat-conditioning paradigm. The difference in learning threatening cues ([CS+] paired with an aversive stimulus) compared to safety cues ([CS-] not paired with an aversive stimulus) was used as a proxy measure of generalized unsafety, as conceptualized by the GUTS model. This difference is expected to be moderated by individual differences in tonic cardiac regulation (i.e. heart rate variability). Lastly, a temporal-differences learning model was used to predict skin-conductance learning during stressor, stressor context and general contexts to determine which best predicts Pavlovian learning. TD learning is expected to better predict skin-conductance in individuals with higher fear inhibition in comparison to those with low fear inhibition.Doctor of Philosophy
This study examined the claims of a theory about how human bodies respond to stress and what this tells us about how anxiety develops in and affects the mind and body. The theory is named the Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress (GUTS) and two main hypotheses were tested in this study: 1) the theory suggests that a person's feeling of safety is affected by the variation in their heart rate at rest, and 2) that a person's feeling of safety could be observed most accurately by their body's defense responses when they are experiencing a threatening situation that is objectively safe. Individuals experiencing anxiety often report being aware that they are safe, yet their heart rate remains elevated and palms remain sweaty. Most studies that have examined the body's defense response have focused almost solely on reactions to a threat by looking at the reactions of one or more organs that make up the body's defense-response systems (e.g., heart). Results of this study confirmed the unique GUTS perspective. Specifically, the heart rate's variation at rest affects the defense response (sweaty hands) during threatening and objectively safe contexts, which in turn, predicts a person's feeling of safety. These results confirm that there are measurable biological constraints that change the way people learn about and react to their environments, which is very important for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety physiology and behavior. The way a person learns to associate emotional responses to certain cues in their environment, particularly threat and safety cues, can be measured as defense responses in the body in response to a series of trials. Exploratory analyses examined human threat learning in comparison with mathematically-generated learning in order to better model the processes whereby anxiety develops based on learning of threat and safety cues.
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Fruehstorfer, David Brian. "Predicting Health-related Outcomes with the Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI): Exploring Interactions of FCB-TI Traits." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1278557105.
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Reinhardt, Emily K. "The NR2B subunit and differential rearing: the role of the amygdala and hippocampus in the acquisition of Pavlovian conditioned fear." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/20335.
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Master of ScienceDepartment of Psychological Sciences
Mary Cain
Research has demonstrated that an enriched rearing environment improves learning in many tasks. However, growing evidence suggests that an enriched environment may not provide the same benefits during a fear conditioning paradigm. In fact, it appears that an isolated rearing environment may facilitate acquisition of fear to an aversive stimulus. The neural mechanisms responsible for this disparity in fear learning among differentially reared animals are currently unknown. The NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor has been shown to be involved in the acquisition of fear and influenced by differential rearing, making it a prime candidate to begin investigating these underlying neural mechanisms. Therefore, this study assessed the expression of the NR2B subunit in brain regions important for the acquisition of fear (amygdala and hippocampus) among differentially reared rats. Rats were reared in an enriched, an isolated, or a standard condition for 30 days. They received four tone-footshock pairings, after which their brains were removed and expression of the NR2B subunit was quantified in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), central nucleus of the amygdala (ACe), and the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Analyses found that the isolated rats began to acquire fear to the aversive stimulus faster than the enriched and standard housed rats. However, the isolated rats showed the least amount of NR2B expression in the BLA while there were no rearing differences in expression within the ACe or the CA3. The results from this study provide further insight to the importance of the rearing environment in learning and memory, especially the learning of fear, and its central neural basis.
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DELAHAYE, QUENTIN. "Framework for Classical Conditioning in a MobileRobot: Development of Pavlovian Model andDevelopment of Reinforcement Learning Algorithmto Avoid and Predict Noxious Events." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskap och teknik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-35771.
Full textAbstract:
Nowadays, robots have more and more sensors and the technologies allow using them with less contraints as before. Sensors are important to learn about the environment. But the sensors can be used for classical conditioning, and create behavior for the robot. One of the behavior developed in this thesis is avoiding and predicting obstacles. The goal of this thesis is to propose a model which consists of developing a specific behavior to avoid noxious event, obstacles.
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Polanská, Michaela. "Questionnement sur la diversité du Pavlovien morave par l'étude technologique des gisements de Milovice I, Pavlov I, Pavlov VI, Dolni Vestonice II-WS, Predmosti Ib (République Tchèque)." Thesis, Paris 1, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PA01H037.
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En Europe centrale et, en particulier en Moravie et en Silésie, se forment entre 28.000 - 25.500 BP non calibré des concentrations des sites situés le long d'un corridor naturel, le seul passage reliant l'Europe du Nord et du Sud. Le terme de «Pavlovien» fut créé pour englober ces sites qui avec leur richesse matérielle, sociale, culturelle et symbolique représentent un témoignage extraordinaire de ce que furent les sociétés du Paléolithique supérieur. Afin de revisiter la définition du Pavlovien, nous proposons une nouvelle lecture de leurs industries lithiques. Un examen approfondi réalisé sur des sites classiques mais également sur des sites nouvellement fouillés nous a conduit à proposer une tripartition des ensembles selon leurs caractéristiques éco-typo-technologique (Groupe à microscies, Groupe à microlithes géométriques et Groupe à pointes de Milovice ). Les populations d'au moins de deux de ces groupes semblent être porteuses d'une tradition lithique particulière et d'une culture matérielle riche et révélatrice de comportements sociaux structurés et récurrents qui semble plaider en faveur d'un fort degré d'homogénéité culturelleIn central Europe, and in particular in Moravia and in Silesia, some concentrations of archaeological sites, dated from 28.000 to 25.500 BP, appeared all way long a natural corridor, which is the only passageway between Northern and Southern Europe. These sites have provided a wide range of artifacts, bringing many data about social, cultural and symbolic aspects of the Upper Paleolithic societies. They are now known as the «Pavlovian complex». In order to refine the definition of the « Pavlovian », this thesis seeks to renew the reading of lithic industries. This study includes both the classical sites and the ones recently excavated. It leads t subdivide the Pavlovian into three mains groups according to their eco-typo-technologica characteristics (the group with microsaws, the group with geometric microliths and the group wit the point of Milovice ). At least two of these groups present specific lithic tradition and an abundan material culture that reveals some social behaviors, both well structured and recurring, which plead in favour of a high level of cultural homogeneity
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Kim, Jee Hyun Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "Extinction of conditioned fear in the developing rat." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41106.
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The present thesis examined extinction of conditioned fear in the developing rat. In the adult rat, the hippocampus is thought to be important for the context-specificity of extinction. Because the hippocampus is a late-maturing structure, it was hypothesised that context-modulation of extinction may be different across development. The first series of experiments investigated reinstatement of extinguished fear in the developing rat (Chapter 2). The results showed that P24 rats exhibited context-specific reinstatement. On the other hand, P17 rats did not exhibit reinstatement of extinguished fear following a US reminder treatment. The failure to see reinstatement in P17 rats was not due to the reminder treatment being ineffective in these rats because the same treatment alleviated spontaneous forgetting in rat this age. The second series of experiments then examined the renewal effect and GABAergic involvement in extinction in P24 and P17 rats (Chapter 3). It was observed that P24 rats displayed renewal whereas P17 rats did not. Also, pre-test injection of FG7142 recovered extinguished fear in P24 rats but not in P17 rats, even across a range of doses. This failure to see any FG7142 effect on extinction in P17 rats was not due to the lack of responsiveness to this drug in these rats because FG7142 was found to be effective in alleviating spontaneous forgetting in rats this age. The third series of experiments then examined the effect of temporary inactivation of the amygdala on extinction and re-extinction in the developing rat (Chapter 4). It was observed that extinction retention is impaired in both P24 and P17 rats if the amygdala is inactivated during extinction training. Interestingly, when a CS that had been previously extinguished and then re-trained was re-extinguished, re-extinction was amygdala-independent if initial extinction occurred at 24 days of age but amygdala-dependent if initial extinction occurred at 17 days of age. That is, amygdala involvement in re-extinction was dissociated across development. Taken together, these experiments provide strong evidence for fundamental differences in mechanisms underlying fear extinction across development. The implications of the findings were discussed in light of the theoretical and neural models of extinction.
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Taylor, Amanda Lee. "Elucidating the fear - maintaining properties of the Ventral Tegmental Area." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Psychology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2853.
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The ventral tegmental area (VTA) and its dopaminergic (DA) mesocorticolimbic projections are thought to be essential in the brain’s reward neurocircuitry. In humans and animal experimental subjects, mild electrical VTA stimulation increases dopamine levels and can induce euphoria. Paradoxically, aversive stimuli activate VTA neurons and forebrain DA activity, and excessive electrical stimulation of the VTA exaggerates fearfulness. Research suggests that experimental manipulation of either the amygdala or the VTA has similar effects on the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian conditioned fear. Recently it was demonstrated that electrical stimulation of the amygdala produced fear extinction deficits in rats. Fear extinction involves the progressive dissipation of conditioned fear responses by repeated non-reinforced exposure to a conditioned stimulus (CS). Maladaptive states of fear in fear-related anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) or specific phobias are thought to reflect fear extinction learning deficits. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of intra-VTA stimulation on fear extinction learning. Using fear-potentiated startle as a behavioural index of conditioned fear, it was found that 120 VTA stimulations paired or unpaired with non-reinforced CS presentations impaired the extinction of conditioned fear. This effect was not apparent in rats that received electrical stimulation of the substantia nigra (SN), suggesting that not all midbrain regions respond similarly. Electrical stimulation parameters did not have aversive affects because rats failed to show fear conditioning when electrical VTA stimulation was used as the unconditioned stimulus. Also, VTA stimulation did not alter conditioned fear expression in non-extinguished animals. Based on the results it is suggested that VTA activation disinhibited conditioned fear responding. Therefore, VTA neuronal excitation by aversive stimuli may play a role in fear-related anxiety disorders thought to reflect extinction learning deficits.