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PubMed2006

Elevated sleep spindle density after learning or after retrieval in rats.

Non-rapid eye movement sleep has been strongly implicated in consolidation of both declarative and procedural memory in humans. Elevated sleep-spindle density in slow-wave sleep after learning has been shown recently in humans. It has been proposed that sleep spindles, 12-15 Hz oscillations superimposed on slow waves (<1 Hz), in concert with high-frequency hippocampal sharp waves/ripples, promote neural plasticity underlying remote memory formation. The present study reports the first indication of learning-associated increase in spindle density in the rat, providing an animal model to study the role of brain oscillations in memory consolidation during sleep. An odor-reward association task, analogous in many respects to human paired-associate learning, is rapidly learned and leads to robust memory in rats. Rats learned the task over 10 massed trials within a single session, and EEG was monitored for 3 h after learning. Learning-induced increase in spindle density is reliably reproduced in rats in two different learning situations, differing primarily in the behavioral component of the task. This increase in spindle density is also present after reactivation of remote memory and in situations when memory update is required; it is not observed after noncontingent exposure to reward and training context. The latter results substantially extend findings in humans. The magnitude of increase (approximately 25%) and the time window of maximal effect (approximately 1 h after sleep onset) were remarkably similar to human data, making this a valid rodent model to study network interactions through the use of simultaneous unit recordings and local field potentials during postlearning sleep.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1989

Diazepam and delta-9-THC: contrasting effects on the discrimination of speech sounds in nonhuman primates.

The adult male baboons were trained on a psychophysical procedure to discriminate five synthetic, steady-state vowel sounds (/a/, /ae/, /e/, /U/, and /c/) from one another. A pulsed train of one vowel comprised the reference stimulus during a session. Animals were trained to press a lever and release the lever only when this reference vowel sound changed to one of the comparison vowels. All animals learned the vowel discriminations rapidly and, once learned, performed the discriminations at the 95-100% correct level. The IM administration of diazepam (0.32, 1.0, 3.2, and 10.0 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent decrements in vowel discriminability. The diazepam-induced decrements in vowel discriminability were correlated with the degree of spectral frequency differences found among the different vowels, with lower vowel discriminability scores found for those vowels with smaller spectral differences from the reference vowel. In contrast, oral administration of delta-9-THC (0.32, 1.0, 3.2, and 5.6 mg/kg) produced no decrements in vowel discriminability.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

The acquisition of vowel discriminations by nonhuman primates.

Three adult male baboons were trained on a psychophysical procedure to discriminate five synthetic, steady-state vowel sounds [a), (ae), (c), (U), and (epsilon] from one another. A pulsed train of one vowel comprised the reference stimulus during a session. Animals were trained to press a lever and release the lever only when this reference vowel sound changed to one of the comparison vowels. All animals learned the vowel discriminations rapidly and, once learned, performed the discriminations at the 95%-100% correct level. During the initial acquisition of the discriminations, however, percent correct detections were higher for those vowels with greater spectral differences from the reference vowel. For some cases, the detection scores correlated closely with differences between first formant peaks, while for others the detection scores correlated more closely with differences between second formant peaks. Once the discriminations were acquired, no discriminability differences were apparent among the different vowels. Underlying discriminability differences were still present, however, and could be revealed by giving a minor tranquilizer (diazepam) that lowered discrimination performances. These drug-induced decrements in vowel discriminability were also correlated with spectral differences, with lower vowel discriminability scores found for those vowels with smaller spectral differences from the reference vowel.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Construction of a model demonstrating neural pathways and reflex arcs.

Employment opportunities in the future will require higher skills and an understanding of mathematics and science. As a result of the growing number of careers that require solid science and mathematics training, the methods of science education are undergoing major reform. To adequately equip students for technologically advanced positions, new teaching methods must be developed that prepare tomorrow's workforce for the challenges of the 21st century. One such method is the use of models. By actively building and manipulating concrete models that represent scientific concepts, students are involved in the most basic level of Piaget's learning scheme: the sensorimotor stage. Models are useful in reaching all students at the foundational levels of learning, and further learning experiences are rapidly moved through higher learning levels. This success ensures greater comprehension and understanding compared with the traditional methods of rote memorization. We developed an exercise for the construction of an inexpensive, easy-to-build model demonstrating neural pathways and reflex arcs. Our exercise also includes many supplemental teaching tools. The exercise is designed to fulfill the need of sound physiological teaching materials for high school students.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

The effects of alcohol on learning as a function of drinking habits.

Thirty-six subjects were categorized as light social drinkers (LSD) and 36 as heavy social drinkers (HSD) on the basis of both biological criteria, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and by self-reports of drinking habits. This study examined the effects of alcohol (0.7 ml/kg) and of noise (75 dB(A] on learning and performance, in choice RT and in immediate memory tasks. Each subject was tested in two consecutive sessions (the time factor) under one of the following experimental conditions: (a) silence + placebo; (b) silence + alcohol; (c) noise + placebo; and (d) noise + alcohol. On immediate memory, there was a strong effect of time which interacted with 'drinker' category, suggesting that HSD subjects learn less rapidly than LSD. Time interacted also with state (sober or intoxicated), showing that learning might be impaired even by a moderate dose of alcohol. On the reaction time task no main effects were found but the time X drinker category interaction was significant; in session 1 LSD's RT were shorter than those of HSD. It is suggested that regular heavy drinking might affect the learning abilities of those who are not yet labelled as alcoholics.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Associative competition in operant conditioning: blocking the response-reinforcer association.

Naive rats were trained to leverpress with a 30-sec delay-of-reinforcement contingency from the start of training. In Experiment 1, the delay interval for different groups of subjects included a signal in the first 5 sec, a signal in the last 5 sec, or no signal at any time. Rats with the signal at the start of the delay interval learned most rapidly. Rats with the signal at the end of the delay failed to learn. In Experiment 2, a choice procedure was used, in which each of two levers was associated with its own 30-sec delay of reinforcement. The delay for one lever included a 5-sec signal at the end of the delay. The delay for the second lever had no signal in its 30-sec delay. Preference was in favor of the lever without the signal in the delay interval. The results demonstrate that the acquisition of new response can be blocked in a manner analogous to the blocking of Pavlovian conditioning.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Teaching health assessment in the virtual classroom.

Health assessment skills are vital to professional nursing practice. Health assessment has traditionally been taught using lecture, teacher-developed tests, practice and live demonstration, and interactive and computer-based learning materials. Rapid advances in information technology during the past decade have greatly expanded distance learning options in higher education. Although much nursing education now uses the Internet, there has been limited use of the Web to teach psychomotor and clinical skills. This article describes how online instruction can be integrated into a health assessment course to teach physical examination skills. The development of instructional videos that can be digitally streamed onto the Web for ready and repeated access can also enhance online learning of technical and clinical skills. Student evaluation of this Web-enhanced course revealed that online assignments enabled them to pace their learning, thereby promoting greater flexibility and independence. Students were able to master the technical skills of working online with minimal difficulty and reported that working online was no more stressful than attending class. The most helpful aspect of the online course was the instructor-developed video that was digitally streamed online.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The effect of cycloheximide and actinomycine D on the spontaneous and operative behaviours of the pigeon (author's transl)].

Three groups of pigeons were studied: controls, pigeons treated with cycloheximide and pigeons treated with actinomycine D. It was noticed that in the first group spontaneous activity increased during different trials and that learning was rapid. In the second group, spontaneous activity remained constant during sucessive experiments while learning improved slowly. In the third group, spontaneous activity gradually disappeared and learning was non-existant. There is a parallelism between spontaneous and operative behavior in the control groups as well as in the treated animals.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Functional significance of climbing-fiber synchrony: a population coding and behavioral analysis.

Population coding and behavioral approaches were taken toward analyzing the functional significance of the climbing-fiber system. Analyses of neuronal interaction using the joint peristimulus time histogram showed that given a low rate of firing, the climbing-fiber system organizes itself to fire synchronously during movement--a feature that bears little or no relationship to the modulation in firing rate during movement or whether olivary neurons respond to a sensory stimulus. Moreover, the climbing-fiber system avoids synchrony during a passive sensory response but actively makes a transition into synchrony as a movement is initiated. Thus, from a functional viewpoint, the active feature of the climbing-fiber system to organize into synchronously firing cell ensembles is uniquely motor. Analyses of behaving rats without an inferior olive revealed that the climbing-fiber system optimizes the timing of skilled movement by reducing reaction time and the interval between repetitive movements by 100 milliseconds. Finally, using classical delay eyeblink conditioning, it was found that the inferior olive is essential for learning about rapid sequences of events but not the same event sequence when given more slowly. It was concluded that the climbing-fiber system exerts its function through synchrony, which provides a 100 ms advantage in movement speed and the ability to learn about events that are rapidly presented in time.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1988

Intrahippocampal injections of gallamine impair learning of a memory task.

Recent evidence has suggested that gallamine may act as an antagonist on presynaptic M2 muscarinic receptors which regulate acetylcholine release. The possibility that gallamine may potentiate learning by enhancing the release of acetylcholine was examined using a behavioral paradigm known to depend on cholinergic activity. Rats were cannulated bilaterally for intrahippocampal (i.h.) injections and adapted to a T-maze before the series of injections was initiated. The effects of bilateral i.h. injections of saline or gallamine (10 micrograms total) were examined on the learning of a win-stay, paired-run task in a T-maze. During the first few sessions, both saline- and gallamine-treated animals achieved below 50% correct responses. Both groups of animals gradually improved performance on the task although, contrary to expectations, gallamine-treated animals did not learn as rapidly as saline-injected animals. To verify the deleterious effects of gallamine on learning, the experiment was repeated using a second group of rats. Similar results were observed; gallamine-treated animals learned to perform the task at a slower rate than the saline-injected controls. The results suggest that treatment strategies with cholinomimetics may impair, rather than enhance performance after long-term administrations.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

A primitive memory system for the deployment of transient attention.

When transient attention is summoned by the sudden appearance of a large cue, it can be deployed to a small portion of the cue where a target appeared on previous trials (Kristjánsson, Mackeben, & Nakayama, 2001). This result runs counter to the view that transient, or exogenous, attention is summoned automatically and indiscriminately to abruptly appearing stimuli. To further characterize the short-term learning mediating this phenomenon, we report the following results. (1) When there was a consistent relationship between a small identifying portion of the cue and the target, learning occurred rapidly. Thus, transient attention can be summoned to a distinctively colored or distinctively shaped portion of the cue as a consequence of repeated pairing (Experiments 1 and 2). (2) When there was a consistent relation between a given position on the object and its overall color or shape, no learning occurred (Experiments 3 and 4). Thus, transient attention cannot learn a complex relation between target position and shape or color. (3) We confirmed the fast object-centered learning of position shown in Kristjánsson et al. (2001). (4) Explicit knowledge of the cue-target relationship had no effect on the performance of the task. The results provide evidence for the existence of a primitive object-centered learning mechanism beneficial for the rapid deployment of transient attention. The possible role of such a mechanism in the maintenance of representations of the visual environment is discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed1982

Learning, memory, and transfer in profoundly, severely, and moderately mentally retarded persons.

Discrimination learning, memory, and transfer capacity were assessed in representative samples of institutionalized retarded persons in order to provide information on trainability. The 56 subjects were selected from moderately, severely, and two levels of profoundly retarded adults. They learned and relearned three successive two-choice discrimination problems. Generally, the higher functioning subjects, defined by IQ and adaptive behavior learned more rapidly than did the lower functioning subjects. Forgetting was related to IQ/adaptive behavior level. Interproblem transfer was negligible at all levels of retardation, but ceiling effects may have obscured positive transfer in the higher functioning groups. Backward learning curves revealed large differences between lower and higher functioning persons in the presolution trials, but once learning began even profoundly retarded subjects solved these problems as rapidly as did the moderately retarded subjects. Ten of the 56 subjects failed to learn all three problems.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

A comparison of homonym and novel word learning: the role of phonotactic probability and word frequency.

This study compares homonym learning to novel word learning by three- to four-year-old children to determine whether homonyms are learned more rapidly or more slowly than novel words. In addition, the role of form characteristics in homonym learning is examined by manipulating phonotactic probability and word frequency. Thirty-two children were exposed to homonyms and novel words in a story with visual support and learning was measured in two tasks: referent identification; picture naming. Results showed that responses to homonyms were as accurate as responses to novel words in the referent identification task. In contrast, responses to homonyms were more accurate than responses to novel words in the picture-naming task. Furthermore, homonyms composed of common sound sequences were named more accurately than those composed of rare sound sequences. The influence of word frequency was less straightforward. These results may be inconsistent with a one-to-one form-referent bias in word learning.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Tips to increase success for teaching online: communication!

Advancement in technology and the World Wide Web have allowed student learning capabilities to expand to unexpected horizons. The majority of today's younger students are computer literate; therefore, new styles of teaching and learning are rapidly developing. Online education is in demand, and universities are rushing into the competitive e-learning marketplace for students. Currently, 6000 accredited college courses are offered online, and 84% of 4-year universities are predicted to offer online courses by 2002. Faculty are expected to expand their teaching styles to include teaching online courses. It is estimated that only 10% to 15% of universities have avoided online programs. Some faculty resist this teaching strategy because of problems encountered when teaching online. Few articles address issues to overcome problems in online education in the nursing literature. This article provides tips on getting a course up and running using the acronym COMMUNICATION. Faculty can use these recommendations to assist them in the development of their online courses.

Communication↗
PubMed1981

[Effects of physostigmine on amnesic syndromes (author's transl)].

Eserine sulphate (physostigmine) tests were conducted in 23 patients with amnesia due to cerebral lesions. Psychometric examinations were performed before and after treatment. Results were analysed statistically for the whole group, and after distribution of patients as a function of the etiology, of the mechanism involved, and of the presumed lesions: 1) amnesias related to lesions along Papez' circuit as shown on CT scans were compared with those with normal CT scans; 2) amnesias of the "hippocampic" types were compared with other neuropsychological types. After eserine sulphate learning ability rapidly improved, in all cases, whereas spontaneous or assisted recall was only slightly improved. No significant differences in learning or recall were noted between the group with normal CT scans and that with evidence of bilateral lesions. In contrast, the efficiency of physostigmine was clearly related to the nature of neuropsychological disorders both for learning and recall of verbal material : a positive effect occurred only in the group with obvious evocation and recall disorders (mamillary, thalamic, or cingular lesions). For improvement to occur the product had be be injected before learning. The role of cholinergic mediators in memory is discussed with regard to these observations. Overall benefit was poor since lasting improvement in fixation was noted in one case only. Thus eserine sulphate appears of little value for prolonged therapy. It may be useful for a functional test during neuropsychological investigations.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Instrumental learning for a thermal reinforcer in 1-day-old rats.

One-day-old rats in a cool environment (25 degrees C) quickly acquired an instrumental response when rewarded with a 20-s warming of the platform (from 25 degrees C to 36 degrees C) on which they lay. The instrumental response, turning the head to one side, was learned within 30 min after the thermal contingency began and extinguished when the contingency was reversed. This experiment demonstrates rapid operant learning by neonates in a task that does not contain a Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer contingency. The novel experimental method has wide applicability in psychology and neuroscience.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Acquisition and automatization of a complex task: an examination of three-ball cascade juggling.

The learning patterns of 3-ball cascade juggling from acquisition until automaticity were examined in 10 participants. On the basis of outcome measures derived from 26 practice sessions and 4 periodic probe sessions, the authors differentiated participants into 3 distinct learning types: a proficient group, an emerging group, and a single late learner. The proficient group was distinguished by how rapidly they learned and automatized performance. Most interesting, an inverse response cost (i.e., performance boost) on the secondary task was found in the majority of proficient group members during the dual-task condition. The present results are discussed in relation to the P. L. Ackerman model (1987, 1988) of complex skill acquisition as is the significance of the inverse response cost finding.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Rapid tryptophan depletion improves decision-making cognition in healthy humans without affecting reversal learning or set shifting.

Rapid tryptophan (Trp) depletion (RTD) has been reported to cause deterioration in the quality of decision making and impaired reversal learning, while leaving attentional set shifting relatively unimpaired. These findings have been attributed to a more powerful neuromodulatory effect of reduced 5-HT on ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC) than on dorsolateral PFC. In view of the limited number of reports, the aim of this study was to independently replicate these findings using the same test paradigms. Healthy human subjects without a personal or family history of affective disorder were assessed using a computerized decision making/gambling task and the CANTAB ID/ED attentional set-shifting task under Trp-depleted (n=17; nine males and eight females) or control (n=15; seven males and eight females) conditions, in a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group design. There was no significant effect of RTD on set shifting, reversal learning, risk taking, impulsivity, or subjective mood. However, RTD significantly altered decision making such that depleted subjects chose the more likely of two possible outcomes significantly more often than controls. This is in direct contrast to the previous report that subjects chose the more likely outcome significantly less often following RTD. In the terminology of that report, our result may be interpreted as improvement in the quality of decision making following RTD. This contrast between studies highlights the variability in the cognitive effects of RTD between apparently similar groups of healthy subjects, and suggests the need for future RTD studies to control for a range of personality, family history, and genetic factors that may be associated with 5-HT function.

Adolescent↗