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Evaluation of isoelectric focusing running conditions during two-dimensional isoelectric focusing/sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis: variation of gel patterns with changing conditions and optimized isoelectric focusing conditions.

Five major isoelectric focusing (IEF) parameters--volt-hours; concentrations of acrylamide, NaOH, and H3PO4; and equilibration time--were systematically varied to determine the effect of each on two-dimensional IEF/sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gel patterns and to optimize IEF conditions. Alterations in each parameter affected the gel pattern, frequently causing uncertainty in the identification of spots between conditions. The results emphasize the need for internal analytical consistency, and indicate that gel pattern comparisons between laboratories can be complicated if different IEF conditions are employed. The systematic evaluation indicated that optimized patterns were obtained when increased concentrations of NaOH and H3PO4 (to 50 and 25 mM, respectively) and run durations of 10,000 V-h or longer were used.

Buffers↗

The conditional nature of the dietary need for polyunsaturates: a proposal to reclassify 'essential fatty acids' as 'conditionally-indispensable' or 'conditionally-dispensable' fatty acids.

The term essential fatty acid no longer clearly identifies the fatty acids it was originally used to describe. It would be more informative if the concept of essentiality shifted away from the symptoms arising from the lack of de novo synthesis of linoleate or alpha-linolenate and towards the adequacy of the capacity for synthesis and conservation of both the parent and the derived long-chain polyunsaturates. For instance, despite the existence of the pathway for synthesis of docosahexaenoate from alpha-linolenate, the former would be more correctly classified as 'conditionally indispensable' because the capacity of the pathway appears insufficient during early development, although it may be sufficient later in life in healthy individuals. Similarly, despite the inability to synthesize linoleate de novo, abundant linoleate stores and its relatively slow turnover in healthy adults probably makes linoleate 'conditionally dispensable' for long periods. There are two other anomalies with the terms essential and non-essential fatty acids: (1) under several different experimental circumstances, the C-skeleton of essential fatty acids is avidly used in the synthesis of non-essential fatty acids; (2) to function normally, the brain is required to endogenously synthesize several non-essential fatty acids. As with essential amino acids, which have been reclassified as indispensable or conditionally indispensable, such a change in terminology should lead to an improved understanding of the function and metabolism of polyunsaturates in particular, and long-chain fatty acids in general.

Fatty Acids, Essential↗

Effect of the amount of body condition loss from the dry to near calving periods on the subsequent body condition change, occurrence of postpartum diseases, metabolic parameters and reproductive performance in Holstein dairy cows.

We investigated the effect of body condition loss from the dry to near calving periods on the subsequent body condition change, the occurrence of postpartum diseases, the serum metabolic parameters total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, and urea nitrogen and the number of days to first breeding after calving in Holstein dairy cows. Body condition scoring (using a 5-point scale with quarter-point divisions) was performed on 67 pregnant Holstein dairy cows. Cows were scored once for body condition during the dry period (prepartum day 35 +/- 16), near calving (postpartum day 5 +/- 4), and subsequently at months 1 (+/- day 4), 2 (+/- day 5), 3 (+/- day 5), and 4 (+/- day 4) of lactation. At the same time, blood samples were collected to evaluate serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose and urea nitrogen concentrations. Cows were categorized based on body condition loss from the dry to near calving periods into two groups: the moderate condition loss group (0-0.75 points, n=41), or the marked condition loss group (1.0-1.5 points, n=26). Regular reproductive health examination was conducted by the same investigator once a week. The marked condition loss group lost more body condition (P<0.01) than the moderate condition loss group consistently until month 1 of lactation. The recovery of body condition in the marked condition loss group was more delayed (P<0.01) than in the moderate condition loss group from months 1 to 4 of lactation. The occurrence of metritis and metabolic diseases (including abomasal displacement, milk fever, ketosis) was greater (P<0.01) in the marked condition loss group (62 and 23%) than in the moderate condition loss group (27 and 2%), respectively. The total cholesterol concentration was lower (P<0.05) in the marked condition loss group (167 +/- 5.3 mg/dl) than in the moderate condition loss group (183 +/- 5.8 mg/dl) at month 1 of lactation, however, the cholesterol levels at the other periods were not different (P>0.05) between the two groups. The triglyceride, glucose, and urea nitrogen concentrations were not different (P>0.05) from the dry period to month 4 of lactation between the two groups. The number of days to first breeding after calving was longer (P<0.05) in the marked condition loss group (103 +/- 7.8 day) than in the moderate condition loss group (87 +/- 5.3 day). We conclude that marked body condition loss from the dry to near calving periods results in the increased occurrence of postpartum metabolic and reproductive diseases, decreased serum total cholesterol concentrations at month 1 of lactation and a longer interval to first breeding after calving in Holstein dairy cows, probably due to the more severe energy deficit reflected by unfavorable body condition score change during early lactation.

Animals↗

Setting expectations for the ecological condition of streams: the concept of reference condition.

An important component of the biological assessment of stream condition is an evaluation of the direct or indirect effects of human activities or disturbances. The concept of a "reference condition" is increasingly used to describe the standard or benchmark against which current condition is compared. Many individual nations, and the European Union as a whole, have codified the concept of reference condition in legislation aimed at protecting and improving the ecological condition of streams. However, the phrase "reference condition" has many meanings in a variety of contexts. One of the primary purposes of this paper is to bring some consistency to the use of the term. We argue the need for a "reference condition" term that is reserved for referring to the "naturalness" of the biota (structure and function) and that naturalness implies the absence of significant human disturbance or alteration. To avoid the confusion that arises when alternative definitions of reference condition are used, we propose that the original concept of reference condition be preserved in this modified form of the term: "reference condition for biological integrity," or RC(BI). We further urge that these specific terms be used to refer to the concepts and methods used in individual bioassessments to characterize the expected condition to which current conditions are compared: "minimally disturbed condition" (MDC); "historical condition" (HC); "least disturbed condition" (LDC); and "best attainable condition" (BAC). We argue that each of these concepts can be narrowly defined, and each implies specific methods for estimating expectations. We also describe current methods by which these expectations are estimated including: the reference-site approach (condition at minimally or least-disturbed sites); best professional judgment; interpretation of historical condition; extrapolation of empirical models; and evaluation of ambient distributions. Because different assumptions about what constitutes reference condition will have important effects on the final classification of streams into condition classes, we urge that bioassessments be consistent in describing the definitions and methods used to set expectations.

Ecosystem↗

Contextual conditioning in infants, but not older animals, is facilitated by CS conditioning.

Context conditioning in infant Sprague-Dawley rats (postnatal days [PD] 15, 17, and 19), juveniles (PD 25), adolescents (PD 35), and adults (PD 71-89) was compared when CS conditioning did or did not occur in the context. Degree of CS conditioning within that context was equated across age, and separate groups at each age were given unpaired presentations of the CS and US within that context. Infants conditioned more effectively to context when CS-US pairings occurred in that context than when they did not, juveniles conditioned to context about equally with and without CS-US pairings in the context, and adolescents and adults conditioned less effectively to context when CS and US were paired than when unpaired. Adolescents had significant context conditioning despite CS-US pairings in the context but adults did not, and overall, context conditioning was strongest for adolescents. Supplementary experiments indicated that with more extensive conditioning experience, the infants' pattern of context conditioning became more similar to that of older animals, and with less conditioning experience the pattern of context conditioning by adults became more similar to that of younger animals, but infants never attained the adult pattern of context conditioning nor did adults attain the infant pattern. The potentiation of context conditioning by CS conditioning observed in infants is consistent with previous evidence derived from compound conditioning. Alternative explanations place common emphasis on infant-specific amodal processing. One views potentiation as a result of the greater perceived intensity of the stimulus compound (CS and context, in this case) during conditioning and the lesser generalization decrement in infants than adults when tested with a single element after conditioning with a compound. The other explanation emphasizes consequences of the redundancy inherent in intersensory compounds, within the theory of Bahrick and Lickliter.

Aging↗

Residual fear of the conditioned stimulus as a function of response prevention after avoidance or classical defensive conditioning in the rat.

Studies employing response prevention (RP) are reviewed. Considering assessment difficulties and conflicting findings, it is questionable whether RP actually reduces fear to a conditioned stimulus (CS). This study measured fear after RP via a conditioned emotional response (CER) paradigm. Hypotheses were that fear of an auditory CS (conditioned in an avoidance paradigm) is reduced during RP, and that fear conditioning would occur to aspects of the conditioning environment per se. Also evaluated was the effectiveness of RP when fear had been learned under two different conditions: (a) avoidance or (b) classical defensive conditioning. Seven groups of 10 experimentally naive female rats were run. Animals were initially trained to bar press for food pellets on a variable interval (VI) 2 schedule. Three groups were then avoidance trained in a two-way shuttle box to a criterion of 10 successive avoidances. Immediately following acquisition, one group received RP (blocking) in the shuttle box (Condition A-B). This consisted of placing a door between the two sides of the box and presenting the 85 dB (A) white noise CS for 15 20-sec periods with a variable 1-min interstimulus interval. One group did not receive RP (nonblocked) and was instead immediately returned to its home cage (Condition A-NBHC). The third group was treated as was A-B except the CS was not presented (Condition A-NBSB). Two other groups were trained in a classical defensive paradigm. These animals were matched to A-B animals in terms of number, order, and duration of CSs and USs. Following conditioning, one group received the same treatment as A-B (Condition CD-B), and the other received the same treatment as A-NBHC (Condition CD-NBHC). Two groups served as controls. A backward control (Condition BC-NBHC) was matched to A-NBHC in terms of number, order, and duration of CSs and USs. A sensitization control (Condition SC-NBHC) was matched to A-NBHC in terms of number, order, and duration of CS presentations. Immediately following conditioning trials, control animals received the same treatment as A-NBHC animals. After differential treatments all animals were immediately returned to the lever box in which they had learned to bar press, a VI 2 schedule was reinstated, and the CER was measured. A-B showed significant suppression initially but significantly less than A-NBHC, suggesting that although RP was effective in reducing fear to the CS, some fear remained. Controls showed essentially no suppression and did not differ. A-B did not differ from A-NBSB, suggesting that conditioning of fear did occur to the environment and that this fear was subsequently reduced in A-NBSB. A-B suppressed significantly more than CD-B, suggesting that RP was more effective when fear was learned in a classical as compared to an avoidance paradigm. Theoretical implications and generalizations to implosive therapy are discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Nicotine enhances trace cued fear conditioning but not delay cued fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice.

Nicotine facilitates hippocampus-dependent contextual but not hippocampus-independent cued delay fear conditioning. To test if the effects of nicotine are specific to contextual fear conditioning or would extend to another hippocampus-dependent version of fear conditioning, we compared the effects of nicotine on cued delay and cued trace fear conditioning in male and female C57BL/6 mice. Unlike cued delay fear conditioning, cued trace fear conditioning is hippocampus dependent. Thus, if nicotine enhances hippocampus-dependent fear conditioning, nicotine should enhance trace fear conditioning. For both trace and delay conditioning, five 30 s, 85 dB white noise conditioned stimuli (CS) were paired with five 2 s, 0.5 mA footshock unconditioned stimuli (US). In the trace paradigm, a 30-s period was inserted between CS offset and US onset. The CS and US co-terminated in the delay paradigm. Testing occurred 24 h later. The data indicate that nicotine (given on training and testing day) enhances trace but not delay cued fear conditioning. No sex differences were found. For delay cued fear conditioning a high level of freezing to the CS was found. Thus, a second experiment examined if the lack of enhancement of delay cued fear conditioning by nicotine was due to a ceiling effect. The CS duration was decreased to 15 s and only one CS-US pairing was used for delay and trace cued fear conditioning. Although overall levels of freezing to the cue were lower in the second experiment, nicotine still enhanced trace fear conditioning but did not enhance delay fear conditioning. Taken together, the results of the present experiments suggest that nicotine enhances hippocampus-dependent versions of fear conditioning.

Analysis of Variance↗

Multiple representations of information in the primary auditory cortex of cats. I. Stability and change in slow components of unit activity after conditioning with a click conditioned stimulus.

Recordings of activity were made from 647 single units of the A(I) cortex of awake cats to evaluate behavioral state-dependent changes in the population response to a 70-dB click. Averages of PST histograms of unit activity were used to assess the changes in response. This report focuses on slow components of the responses disclosed by averages employing bin widths of 16 ms. Responses were compared before and after a Pavlovian blink CR was produced by forward pairing of click conditioned stimuli (CSs) with USs. A backward-paired 70-dB hiss was presented as a discriminative stimulus. Studies were also done after backward pairing of the click CSs (backward conditioning) that produced weak sensitization instead of a conditioned response. There were four main findings. First, components of activity elicited 32-160 ms after presenting the hiss decreased significantly after conditioning and after backward conditioning. The decreases after conditioning represented the most pronounced changes in activity evoked by either clicks or hisses in this behavioral state. Second, baseline firing decreased after both conditioning and backward conditioning. The direction of baseline change was opposite that found in adjacent cortical regions and in A(I) cortex after operant conditioning employing an acoustic cue. Third, prior to conditioning, unit activity in response to the hiss declined before the sound of the hiss reached its peak or terminated. This decrease was thought to represent a habituatory adaptation of response to a prolonged acoustic stimulus. This type of habituation to a lengthy stimulus has been recognized, behaviorally, but has not been observed previously in the activity of units of the auditory receptive cortex. Fourth, the percentage of click responsive units did not change significantly after the click was used as a CS for conditioning, and despite the accompanying changes in baseline activity, the absolute levels of activity summed in the first 16 ms after click delivery remained stable across behavioral states in which the motor response to the click was altered profoundly. The onset of the conditioned motor response began 20 ms after the click, and was shown earlier to depend on rapid, potentiated transmission through the cochlear nucleus and motor cortex for its generation. Thus the stability of the response to the click in the primary auditory receptive cortex was unexpected. This led us to make further analyses of the data with 2- and 4-ms bin widths (see companion report) that eventually disclosed a potentiated response to the click. The findings show stability and change in the response to the click as a CS, depending on the band pass (bin width) used for analysis of spike activity. In the representation disclosed by low pass filtering in this study, the response was stable. This representation provided information suitable for identifying commonalties of the click signals across varying behavioral states. The representations of the click and hiss contained in the slow components of the population response in the A(I) cortex were uncorrelated with the selective potentiation of activity in motor cortex and behavioral performance in response to click as a CS after conditioning. Although changes in the activity evoked by hisses occurred after conditioning, the changes also occurred after backward conditioning when only small, sensitized behavioral responses to clicks and hisses were observed. Basic theoretical considerations about information transmission in complex neural networks plus clinical observations comparing derangements of linguistic and non-linguistic cortical functions in humans suggest that multiple representations of conditioned stimulus inputs may exist in local populations of cortical neurons. Together, our studies provide evidence for two different, concurrent representations of information about a click CS encoded in the spike activity of the A(I) cortex.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Unconditioned and conditioned factors contribute to the 'reinstatement' of cocaine place conditioning following extinction in C57BL/6 mice.

Relapse to drug use following prolonged periods of abstinence results, in part, from the ability of contextual cues paired previously with self-administered drug to elicit drug craving and -seeking behavior. Given the popularity of the mouse for the genetic analysis of drug-induced behaviors, a place conditioning model of drug-seeking behavior was used to examine the ability of cocaine (COC) to reinstate extinguished conditioned reward in mice. In a series of experiments, COC place conditioning was produced in male C57BL/6 (B6) mice by four pairings of COC (15 or 25 mg/kg, IP) with the non-preferred compartment of a two-compartment place conditioning apparatus. Following a post-conditioning test (Post-Test), place conditioning was extinguished by repeated testing. The mice were then challenged with one of five COC doses (0, 5, 10, 15 or 25 mg/kg, IP) and allowed free access to both environments. Following extinction, COC injections reinstated place conditioning to 100% or greater, relative to the Post-Test. In a control experiment, mice received either COC or SAL paired with non-preferred compartment and were then challenged with either COC (15 mg/kg, IP) or SAL on the Post-Test. COC-conditioned, but not SAL-conditioned, mice exhibited place conditioning when tested in a COC-free state. Interestingly, COC injection on the Post-Test elicited an increase in approach behavior in both SAL- and COC-conditioned mice and this increase was equivalent to that produced by COC conditioning alone. No direct relationships were observed between the magnitude of place conditioning and either COC-induced or -conditioned locomotor hyperactivity in the non-preferred compartment. Thus, at least two independent processes appear to underlie the ability of a COC injection to elicit approach behavior towards the non-preferred compartment of a biased place conditioning apparatus in mice-reactivation of the conditioned incentive motivational properties of COC-paired cues and elicitation of unconditioned behavioral disinhibition. One or both of these processes sensitizes with the passage of time, increasing the propensity of B6 mice to approach non-preferred environments upon COC re-administration.

Aging↗

Effects of contextual conditioning and unconditional stimulus presentation on performance in appetitive conditioning.

Four experiments with rat subjects examined the effects of contextual conditioning on conditioned appetitive performance. Experiment 1 compared the effects of contextual conditioning on performance to conditioned stimuli (CSs) with different conditioning histories. Contextual conditioning enhanced performance to the CS if the CS had first been conditioned and then extinguished, but had no effect on performance when the CS had been merely paired or unpaired with food. Experiments 2 and 3 then asked whether the effect on the extinguished CS was due to contextual conditioning acting as a cue for conditioning. In Experiment 2, extinction procedures in which extra unconditioned stimuli (USs) were presented during the intertrial intervals were found to reduce the CS's sensitivity to enhancement by contextual conditioning, but had no effect on spontaneous recovery. In Experiment 3, USs added to conditioning or extinction acquired the ability to cue the corresponding performance. Under some conditions, USs added to conditioning could suppress performance (Experiment 4). The results suggest that contextual conditioning has complex effects that can be better understood by recognizing that contextual conditioning, as well as the USs that create it, may acquire discriminative control over conditioned responding.

Animals↗

Behaviorally conditioned modulation of natural killer cell activity: effects of pre-conditioning manual restraint and apparatus exposure.

This study investigated behaviorally conditioned modulation of natural killer cell (NK) activity. One and three trial behavioral conditioning training trial designs were examined. In addition, the influence of pre-conditioning exposure to manual restraint and the conditioning apparatus upon behaviorally conditioned natural killer cell responses was assessed. Prior to one trial training, animals were exposed to either the conditioning apparatus, manual restraint, or were undisturbed. The animals were then trained to associate the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US), and later re-presented with the CS. Behaviorally conditioned animals demonstrated significantly enhanced NK cell activity, no difference in NK activity, or significantly decreased NK activity, respectively. There was also a significant interaction between the manual restraint and behavioral conditioning interventions. Animals in a three training trial design were either manually restrained daily prior to and during behavioral conditioning or were left undisturbed. In this design behavioral conditioning significantly decreased NK cell activity and manual restraint significantly increased NK cell lytic activity. These data illustrate behaviorally conditioned decreases and increases in NK cell lytic activity dependant upon the experimental design. Behaviorally conditioned NK cell activity is influenced by additional behavioral interventions (i.e. manual restraint and novelty of conditioning environment) inherent within the behavioral conditioning procedures.

Animals↗

Conditioned memory modulation, freezing, and avoidance as measures of amygdala-mediated conditioned fear.

Three conditioned aversive responses were used to infer the existence of an unobservable central state of "conditioned fear," and the roles of certain amygdala subregions in producing these responses were investigated. Rats received tone-shock pairings in one compartment of a shuttle box and no tones or shocks in the other, distinctive, compartment. They were then trained to find food in one arm of a Y-maze. After the final training trial they were exposed to different sets of stimuli in the shuttle box with no shock. Twenty-four hours later rats that had received immediate posttraining exposure to the conditioned stimuli (in the shock-paired compartment) made significantly more correct responses on the Y-maze than rats that had been exposed to the neutral stimuli (in the no-shock compartment) or rats that had received delayed posttraining exposure to the conditioned stimuli. This constitutes a demonstration of posttraining memory modulation by conditioned aversive stimuli. Freezing increased during posttraining exposure to the conditioned stimuli compared to the neutral stimuli. When subsequently allowed to move freely between the two compartments, the rats in all groups also showed significant conditioned avoidance of the compartment containing the conditioned stimuli. In a second experiment the effects of lesions confined to specific parts of the amygdala on the three conditioned responses (memory modulation, freezing, avoidance) were tested. Lesions of the central nucleus impaired all three conditioned responses; lesions of the medial nucleus impaired conditioned modulation and avoidance. These lesions had no effect on freezing during the training trials. Lesions of the lateral and basolateral nuclei attenuated freezing during both training and testing. The findings suggest that the central and medial nuclei of the amygdala may be important parts of neural circuits mediating conditioned responses that constitute conditioned aversive states, but that conditioned freezing may be mediated independently.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Devazepide, a CCKA receptor antagonist, impairs the acquisition of conditioned reward and conditioned activity.

Cholecystokinin (CCK) is co-localized with dopamine (DA) in portions of the mesolimbic system, where it may facilitate the function of DA through the CCKA receptor subtype. DA has been implicated in the acquisition of conditioned incentive learning, raising the possibility of a role for endogenous CCK in this learning process. This hypothesis was tested using two complementary behavioral paradigms. Experiment 1 examined the effects of systemic administration of the CCKA receptor selective antagonist, devazepide (0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 mg/kg), on the acquisition of conditioned reward. Two novel levers were presented to drug-free animals in a test session; depression of the conditioned reward (CR) lever produced a light-tone stimulus previously paired with food availability while depression of the non-CR lever produced no programmed consequence. Animals receiving vehicle pretreatment in the food-CS conditioning sessions responded more frequently on the CR lever during the test session. However, pre-treatment with devazepide (0.1 mg/kg but not 0.001 or 0.01 mg/kg) in the conditioning sessions blocked the acquisition of conditioned reward. In contrast, experiment 2 showed that the development of conditioned reward was not affected by similar administration of the CCKB selective antagonist, L-365,260 (0, 0.001, 0.01, or 0.1 mg/kg). The possibilities that devazepide (0.1 mg/kg) impaired the development of conditioned reward by decreasing the amount of food consumed or by inducing a conditioned taste aversion to the food were ruled out in experiments 3 and 4. The effects of devazepide on the acquisition of conditioned activity induced by amphetamine were assessed in experiment 5. During four conditioning sessions, rats received devazepide (0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg) treatment prior to amphetamine-environment pairings. The conditioned activity effect was demonstrated if on the subsequent drug-free test day the environment alone elicited increased locomotion. Devazepide (0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg) attenuated the development of conditioned activity. Together, these results provide converging evidence that intact CCKA function may be necessary for the development of conditioned incentive learning.

Animals↗

Conditioned immunosuppression in young versus aged mice: differences in cells and responses to environmental stimuli lead to altered conditioning in aged animals.

Aged mice (greater than 20 months of age) show a decreased immune response after antigen challenge compared to their young counterparts. In this study aged mice were also found to show a diminished conditioned immunosuppression after associative learning trials with cyclophosphamide and saccharin, followed by immune stimulation in the presence of saccharin, when compared to young (10 weeks) syngeneic mice. Adoptive transfer experiments in which cells from nonconditioned or conditioned young or aged mice were injected into irradiated conditioned young or aged syngeneic mice (exposed or not exposed to conditioned stimuli) revealed the following: (1) There was an altered responsiveness of normal cells injected into conditioned aged mice (reexposed to cues) compared to the response in young recipients; (2) Cells from conditioned young mice failed to show conditioned immunosuppression on adoptive transfer to irradiated conditioned aged mice; (3) Cells from conditioned aged mice failed to show conditioned immunosuppression on adoptive transfer to irradiated conditioned young mice; (4) The changes seen in spleen cells from conditioned aged mice (relative to similar cells from young mice) were to be found in the T cell population of these animals. These data are consistent with the idea that during aging changes in both the responding cells and the conditioned environment, along with the interaction of these, produce a decreased ability to document conditioned immunosuppression of antibody responses.

Aging↗

Multiple representations of information in the primary auditory cortex of cats. II. Stability and change in early (<32 ms), rapid components of activity after conditioning with a click conditioned stimulus.

Activity was recorded from single units of the A(I) cortex of awake animals to identify early (<32 ms) components of the population response to a 70 dB click and establish if they changed after using the click as a CS for conditioning. A 70 dB hiss was used as a discriminative stimulus. Responses to these stimuli were compared before and after a forward order of pairing that produced conditioning and a backward order of pairing that produced weak sensitization (backward conditioning). Averages of discharges in 2 and 4 ms bins distinguished primary (8-12 ms) from secondary (12-16 ms) temporal components of response to the click, and confirmed that the onset of the response was shorter in A(I) (8 ms, mean of 647 units) than in the adjacent, A(II) cortex (16 ms, mean of 95 units). (All times include a 1.6 ms transmission delay in sound arrival.) Primary and secondary components of A(I) responses to click did not change uniformly after changes in behavioral state, and were affected differently by both conditioning and backward conditioning. The percentage of cells with onsets of response to the click at secondary latencies (and to the hiss at tertiary latencies) increased after backward conditioning but not after conditioning, as did the magnitude of activity in response to the click. (The latter had a lesser degree of increase after conditioning.) The primary response to the click did not show these increases. The non-uniform changes suggested that temporal processing of the click was conducted differently in the 8-12 ms post stimulus period than in the 12-16 ms period. Within the total population of cells, it was possible to identify a small subgroup (13%) of highly auditory-responsive units that showed an increased primary response to the click as a CS selectively after conditioning and not after backward conditioning. The secondary component of response in these cells increased after both conditioning and backward conditioning. The percentages of cells responding to the click and hiss at primary latencies did not change significantly after conditioning, even in the subgroup of highly responsive cells. The results characterize differently timed components of rapid responses to acoustic stimuli in the A(I) cortex, disclose significant temporal differences in primary, secondary and tertiary information processing that affect the representations of the transmitted acoustic message across different behavioral states, and find one representation in a small subgroup of cells that supports the hypothesis that cells of the A(I) cortex have a selectively potentiated response to the CS after conditioning.

Acoustic Stimulation↗