Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Reversal Learning”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,243 records · Page 69Linked to original sources

Orbital prefrontal cortex and guidance of instrumental behaviour in rats under reversal conditions.

The orbital prefrontal cortex (OPFC) is suggested to be part of a circuitry mediating the perception of reward and the initiation of adaptive behavioural responses. In the present study, we investigated in rats changes of goal-directed behaviour after bilateral OPFC-lesions by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) in more detail. A reaction time (RT) task was used which is sensitive to subtle changes in discriminative guidance of instrumental behaviour by the anticipated reward magnitudes. The task demands conditioned lever release triggered by an imperative stimulus. The upcoming reward magnitude (five or one food pellet) for each trial was randomly chosen and signalled in advance by distinct instructive stimuli. In trained rats, RTs of instrumental responses were determined by the two distinct stimulus-reward magnitude contingencies, i.e. RTs were shorter to the instructive stimulus predictive of the higher reward magnitude. Results show that lesions of the OPFC did not impair discriminative guidance of behavioural responses according to preoperatively acquired stimulus-reward magnitude contingencies. However, guidance of instrumental behaviour was altered in lesioned rats after a reversal of the stimulus-reward magnitude contingencies. The data add further support to the hypothesis that the rat OPFC is not involved in retrieval of acquired stimulus-reward magnitude contingencies but in integration of incentive information to guide behaviour after a reversal of stimulus-reward contingencies.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

The effects of excitotoxic lesions of the nucleus accumbens on a matching to position task.

The effects of bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the nucleus accumbens in the rat were examined on a delayed matching to position task. The lesion induced a stable delay-dependent performance deficit suggestive of a short-term memory problem. Following analysis of the impaired performance on trials with long delays, using measures akin to signal detection indices, the deficit was interpreted as being largely due to the intrusion of a side-dependent response bias. Low-dose amphetamine (0.75 mg/kg) produced a similar disruption in the sham-operated rats, both in terms of accuracy impairment and degree of strategical bias. As well as mimicking the effects of low-dose amphetamine in sham-operated rats, the lesion also protected against the disruptive effects of the drug at low doses. Whilst exhibiting no performance deficit when the matching schedule lacked a delay component, the lesioned rats were very significantly impaired in switching their response strategies when exposed to a series of reversals. In addition, the lesioned rats were remarkably resistant to an extinction procedure. Both these findings indicate that the lesioned rats were unable to exhibit flexibility in their response patterns. These results, taken together with those of the delayed matching procedure, imply that one of the functions of the intact nucleus accumbens is to inhibit habitual responding under conditions of non-reward and low stimulus control, possibly via its connections to the dorsal striatal system.

Amphetamine↗

Color vision discrimination in the capuchin monkey Cebus apella: evidence for trichromaticity.

Primates display significant differences in color vision. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of capuchin monkeys in discriminating chromatic and achromatic Munsell color chips through behavioral tests. The subjects were trained in a simple and reverse discrimination learning procedure. All subjects were capable of discriminations along five color categories investigated. The results are discussed in terms of the hypothesis of male dichromatism in New World monkeys, the role of color vision in adaptation to feeding ecology, as well as to aspects regarding primate evolution.

Animals↗

The one-target advantage: a test of the movement integration hypothesis.

Two experiments were conducted to compare the temporal structure of single aiming movements to two-component movements involving either a reversal in direction or an extension. For reversal movements, there was no cost associated with the movement time for the first segment of the movement. However, regardless of movement direction, initiation instructions, handedness or effector, two-component extension movements were always associated with a longer movement time for the first movement segment. This disadvantage for extension movements, but not reversal movements, is consistent with the notion that there is interference between the execution of the first movement and implementation of the second movement. By contrast, because the muscular force used to break the first movement is also used to propel the second movement, reversal movements are organised as an integrated unit.

Adolescent↗

Current task activation predicts general effects of advance preparation in task switching.

Two experiments investigated the way that beforehand preparation influences general task execution in reaction-time matching tasks. Response times (RTs) and error rates were measured for switching and nonswitching conditions in a color- and shape-matching task. The task blocks could repeat (task repetition) or alternate (task switch), and the preparation interval (PI) was manipulated within-subjects (Experiment 1) and between-subjects (Experiment 2). The study illustrated a comparable general task performance after a long PI for both experiments, within and between PI madipulations. After a short PI, however, the general task performance increased significantly for the between-subjects manipulation of the PI. Furthermore, both experiments demonstrated an analogous preparation effect for both task switching and task repetitions. Next, a consistent switch cost throughout the whole run of trials and a within-run slowing effect were observed in both experiments. Altogether, the present study implies that the effects of the advance preparation go beyond the first trials and confirms different points of the activation approach (Altmann, 2002) to task switching.

Adolescent↗

Temporal neocortical injuries in rats impair attending but not complex visual processing.

The effects of variations of the distance between the relevant stimuli and the animals' response sites were observed upon the performances of a black-white discrimination habit for normal rats or subjects prepared with either bilateral injuries to the visual or temporal neocortex. In addition, the animals were given a strict test of visual form perception. Subjects with injuries to the visual cortex failed the test of visual form perception but performed like normals in discriminating a spatially discontiguous problem. In contrast, subjects with temporal injuries exhibited enormous performance deficits when trained on a spatially discontiguous problem but performed like normals on the test of form perception. The findings parallel the results of studies using primates and suggest that bitemporal injuries result in impairments of attending and not of complex visual processing.

Animals↗

The process of recurrent choice.

Recurrent choice has been studied for many years. A static law, matching, has been established, but there is no consensus on the underlying dynamic process. The authors distinguish between dynamic models in which the model state is identified with directly measurable behavioral properties (performance models) and models in which the relation between behavior and state is indirect (state models). Most popular dynamic choice models are local, performance models. The authors show that behavior in different types of discrimination-reversal experiments and in extinction is not explained by 2 versions of a popular local model and that the nonlocal cumulative-effects model is consistent with matching and that it can duplicate the major properties of recurrent choice in a set of discrimination-reversal experiments. The model can also duplicate results from several other experiments on extinction after complex discrimination training.

Animals↗