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Procedural learning in perceptual categorization.

In two experiments, observers learned two types of category structures: those in which perfect accuracy could be achieved via some explicit rule-based strategy and those in which perfect accuracy required integrating information from separate perceptual dimensions at some predecisional stage. At the end of training, some observers were required to switch their hands on the response keys, whereas the assignment of categories to response keys was switched for other observers. With the rule-based category structures, neither change in response instructions interfered with categorization accuracy. However, with the information-integration structures, switching response key assignments interfered with categorization performance, but switching hands did not. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that abstract category labels are learned in rule-based categorization, whereas response positions are learned in information-integration categorization. The association to response positions also supports the hypothesis of a procedural-learning-based component to information integration categorization.

Association Learning↗

Deficit in postoperative learning and retention of complex tasks by septal rats.

Pre- and postoperative acquisition and retention of locomotor tasks of different complexity were investigated in septal rats. Experiment I involved acquisition and retention of a task using a four-unit-quadruple-choice apparatus. Severe impairment in both postoperative acquisition and postoperative retention was observed from all parameters of learning: trials, errors, repetitive errors and vicarious responses. However, there were significant savings in postoperative retention, scores compared to postoperative acquisition by septal rats. Experiment II examined acquisition and retention of a less complex task by using a two-unit-quadruple-choice apparatus. Impairment of postoperative acquisition in septal rats was reflected only in the number of trials to learning criterion and vicarious responses, while the number of errors and repetitive errors were not distinguished between normal and septal animals. Retention deficits in the septal rats were reflected in all learning parameters, although there were savings in postoperative retention compared to postoperative acquisition scores attained by septal rats. It is suggested that lesions of the septal area in rats may change the integration of intero- and exteroceptive cues, providing a source of interference if the task can be solved by the use of more than one strategy.

Animals↗

Value transmission in discrimination learning involving stimulus chains.

Rats learned a series of reversals of a positional discrimination in which responses to one lever led to delayed food and responses to a second lever led to no food. Interpolated within the delays leading to the different outcomes were two-link stimulus chains. The pairing of each stimulus element with the delayed outcome of food or no food varied across reversals. Either stimulus element could have the same correlation with outcome as occurred on the preceding reversal or the opposite correlation as on the preceding reversal. New reversals were acquired more quickly when both stimulus elements had the same status as during the preceding reversal, and were acquired most slowly when both stimulus elements had the opposite status as that of the preceding reversal. The rate of learning was intermediate when only one of the stimulus elements had the same status as that during the preceding reversal. All of the data are compatible with an interpretation in terms of backward chaining of stimulus value.

Animals↗

Reversal of a trimethyltin-induced learning deficit by desglycinamide-8-arginine vasopressin.

Trimethyltin (TMT) is an organometal neurotoxin which produces lesions primarily in the limbic system. Selectivity seems to depend upon the dose, but the hippocampus and related entorhinal cortical structures, of importance for learning and memory, are most often described as target sites. We have previously demonstrated that subjects treated with a moderate dose of TMT prior to acquisition sessions, are unable to learn a forward autoshaping task with a 6 sec delay of reinforcement, but are capable of acquiring the same task when no delay of reinforcement is used. These data suggested that the performance deficit is one of learning (i.e. consolidation) rather than of memory (i.e. storage), retrieval, or sensorimotor impairment. To more rigorously test this hypothesis, we determined if performance of a task already learned would be impaired by the neurotoxin. Adult male Long Evans rats were given 10 acquisition sessions of 24 trials, following which TMT (6.0 mg/kg, p.o.) was administered. One month later, these rats performed the lever-touching behavior as well as controls, despite the fact that the same dose of TMT interfered with learning if given one month prior to acquisition sessions, thus confirming our hypothesis. In a second experiment we determined if the peptide analog of vasopressin, desglycinamide-8-arginine vasopressin (DGAVP), could reverse a learning deficit in a population of non-learners. Rats were treated with TMT or water vehicle one month prior to autoshaping. TMT significantly retarded acquisition. After 10 sessions of 12 trials each, non-learners (i.e. rats treated with TMT that failed to associate the lever with delivery of a reinforcer) were administered saline or DGAVP (7.5 micrograms/kg, s.c.) 1 hr before sessions 11-13; treatment was discontinued prior to sessions 14 and 15. Peptide treated subjects showed evidence of acquisition and exhibited higher levels of lever-directed behavior than saline treated nonlearners. Performance was maintained after DGAVP treatment was discontinued, indicating that the learning-enhancing action of DGAVP was not transient or state-dependent.

Animals↗

Involvement of 5-HT(2A/2B/2C) receptors on memory formation: simple agonism, antagonism, or inverse agonism?

1. The 5-HT2 receptors subdivision into the 5-HT(2A/2B/2C) subtypes along with the advent of the selective antagonists has allowed a more detailed investigation on the role and therapeutic significance of these subtypes in cognitive functions. The present study further analyzed the 5-HT2 receptors role on memory consolidation. 2. The SB-200646 (a selective 5-HT(2B/2C) receptor antagonist) and LY215840 (a nonselective 5-HT(2/7) receptor antagonist) posttraining administration had no effect on an autoshaped memory consolidation. However, both drugs significantly and differentially antagonized the memory impairments induced by 1-(3-chlorophenyl)piperazine (mCPP), 1-naphtyl-piperazine (1-NP), mesulergine, or N-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl) piperazine (TFMPP). 3. In contrast, SB-200646 failed to modify the facilitatory procognitive effect produced by (+/-)-2.5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) or ketanserin, which were sensitive to MDL100907 (a selective 5-HT2A receptor antagonist) and to a LY215840 high dose. 4. Finally, SB-200646 reversed the learning deficit induced by dizocilpine, but not that by scopolamine: while SB-200646 and MDL100907 coadministration reversed memory deficits induced by both drugs. 5. It is suggested that 5-HT(2B/2C) receptors might be involved on memory formation probably mediating a suppressive or constraining action. Whether the drug-induced memory impairments in this study are explained by simple agonism, antagonism, or inverse agonism at 5-HT2 receptors remains unclear at this time. 6. Notably, the 5-HT2 receptor subtypes blockade may provide some benefit to reverse poor memory consolidation conditions associated with decreasedcholinergic, glutamatergic, and/or serotonergic neurotransmission.

Animals↗

Prenatal removal of frontal association cortex in the fetal rhesus monkey: anatomical and functional consequences in postnatal life.

Anatomical and behavioral consequences were examined following bilateral or unilateral resections of the presumptive dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in 4 rhesus monkey fetuses at E102 (102nd embryonic day), E104, E106 and E119, with subsequent replacement in utero and delivery at later stages of development. Unoperated monkeys of appropriate pre- and postnatal ages served as controls for certain features of morphogenesis and tectogenesis. Monkeys given comparable unilateral or bilateral lesions at selected postnatal ages were used as controls for the behavioral effects of prenatal resection as well as for neuropathological examination. The behavioral evaluation provided evidence for extraordinary preservation of function after frontal cortical resection in the prenatal period. During the entire course of its postnatal development, a monkey that sustained bilateral resection as a fetus at E106 performed surprisingly well and clearly with the competence of unoperated monkeys of identical or older ages on tasks selective for dorsolateral prefrontal cortical function; it did not exhibit deficits characteristic of animals that have comparable or even smaller resections as juveniles or adults. Following either unilateral or bilateral resection prior to E106, ectopic sulci and gyri appeared in intact regions of the frontal lobe of each hemisphere, as well as in locations at a considerable distance from the lesions, such as the temporal and occipital lobes. The cytoarchitectonic characteristics of the cortex in these anomalous gyri were typical of adjacent cortex in the regions in which they appeared. Examination of the parvocellular subdivision of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus yielded the novel finding that this principal source of essential projections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contained a virtually normal number of neurons in postnatal monkeys, following unilateral or bilateral lesions performed at or before E106, and exhibited only a partial loss of neurons after surgery at E119. The same cells regularly degenerate following comparable resections in the postnatal period. The survival of these neurons in prenatally operated monkeys is unprecedented, and can be explained by several hypotheses, including the possibility that their axons become rerouted to their structures in the absence of their normal targets. The present results thus demonstrate that ablation of a circumscript area of the frontal cortex in a non-human primate a full two months before birth may leave the functions later to be subserved by that area unaffected. Such early surgical intervention results in significant alteration in the gross morphological characteristics of the cortex, and apparently induces a functionally compensatory reorganization of thalamocortical connections. Similar principles may account for sparing of function following early damage to the human brain.

Animals↗