Improving the Function of Social Interaction: A Preliminary Evaluation of a Basic‐Research‐Informed Approach

Brain Response to Visceral Aversive Conditioning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Social Facilitation of Long-Lasting Memory Retrieval in Drosophila

Classical conditioning , described by Pavlov , has emerged as an important tool in our efforts to understand the mechanisms of emotional learning. Using a classical fear conditioning paradigm, research with nonhuman animals has identified the amygdala as a critical structure for emotional learning. This chapter reviews how studies in humans have extended the role of the amygdala to social means of emotional learning and culturally acquired race bias. Although cultural knowledge and some forms of social communication may be uniquely human characteristics, how emotional value is expressed in these domains seems to rely on basic mechanisms that are shared across species . OVERVIEW The basic principles of classical conditioning were identified by Ivan Pavlov more than a century ago when he showed that dogs would salivate to the ringing of a bell that had previously been paired with the delivery of food. More recently, investigators have used classical conditioning paradigms to help understand the neural mechanisms of emotional learning. These studies have focused on classical fear conditioning. In a typical fear conditioning paradigm, a neutral stimulus, called the conditioned stimulus (CS), is paired with an aversive event, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). After a few pairings, the animal learns that CS predicts the UCS, and this previously neutral stimulus begins to elicit a fear response, called the conditioned response (CR). Using this paradigm, scientists studying nonhuman animals have been able to map the neural pathways of emotional learning from stimulus input to response output (see LeDoux, 2002, for a review).

The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Clinical and Scientific Priorities.

Does Cerebellar LTD Mediate Motor Learning? Toward a Resolution without a Smoking Gun

Complex Adaptations to Traumatic Stress: From Neurobiological to Social and Cultural Aspects

Effects of conditioned stimulus presentation on diminution of the unconditioned response in aversive classical conditioning

Case studies in behaviour modification: Edited by L. P. Ullmann and L. Krasner. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1965). pp. xii + 401

Simple SummaryWe explored the application of infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-invasive method to measure the eye’s lacrimal caruncle temperature in sheep, specifically focusing on its potential to detect negative emotions such as fear. Fourteen ewes, divided into two study groups according to the exposed emotional (positive n = 7 and negative n = 7), were subjected to classical conditioning associating a neutral auditory stimulus with either a positive event (food reward) or a negative event (opening an umbrella). Then, lacrimal caruncle temperatures using IRT, behavioral observation of ear postures, and saliva samples were collected to assess cortisol levels at rest and after treatment. The results reveal a significant increase in lacrimal caruncle temperature post-treatment only in the negative group (p = 0.017), indicating a potential association between IRT-measured eye temperature and negative emotional states in sheep. Additionally, behavioral observations align with the learned association between the neutral stimulus and events of different emotional valence. As for cortisol, despite not being significant, its levels increased for both groups post-treatment. The study concludes that IRT proves valuable in non-invasively evaluating the physiological impact of positive and negative events on sheep.Infrared thermography (IRT) has been recently applied to measure lacrimal caruncle temperature non-invasively since this region is related to the sympathetic response, and it seems a promising technique that is able to infer negative emotions in sheep (e.g., fear). However, the scientific literature so far is limited in understanding whether a caruncle’s temperature changes also in response to positive emotional states in sheep. Through classical conditioning, we aimed to assess how a positive or a negative event affects the physiological (lacrimal caruncle temperature measured with IRT and cortisol levels) and behavioral responses of sheep (ear position). Fourteen ewes from the same flock were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: positive (n = 7) and negative (n = 7). Each group was then trained through classical conditioning to associate a neutral auditory (ring bell) stimulus to an oncoming event: for the positive group, the presence of a food reward (maize grains), while for the negative one, the opening of an umbrella. After three weeks of training, before (at rest) and after (post-treatment), lacrimal caruncle temperature was non-invasively measured via IRT, and saliva samples were gently collected to measure cortisol levels. During treatment, sheep behavior was videorecorded and then analyzed using a focal animal sampling technique. At rest, the eye’s lacrimal caruncle temperature was similar in both groups, while post-treatment, a significant increase was shown only in the negative group (t-test; p = 0.017). In the anticipation phase, sheep in the positive group kept their ears forward longer compared to those in the negative one (Mann–Whitney; p < 0.014), 8.3 ± 2.1 s and 5.2 ± 4.2 s, respectively. The behavioral response observed reflects a learnt association between a neutral stimulus and events with different emotional valence. Cortisol concentration slightly increased in both groups post-treatment. Our results confirm that IRT is a non-invasive technique that can be useful when applied to assess how positive and negative events may affect the physiological response in sheep.

We studied the role of nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) in Pavlovian fear conditioning. Rats were trained to fear conditioned stimulus A (CSA) in Stage I, which was then presented in compound with a neutral stimulus and paired with shock in Stage II. AcbSh lesions had no effect on fear-learning to CSA in Stage I, but selectively prevented learning about the neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) in Stage II. These results add to a growing body of evidence indicating an important role for the ventral striatum in fear-learning. They suggest that the ventral striatum and AcbSh, in particular, directs learning toward or away from a CS as a consequence of how well that CS predicts the shock unconditioned stimulus (US). AcbSh is required to reduce the processing of established predictors, thereby permitting neutral or less predictive stimuli to be learned about.

Contribution of muscle spindle circuits to learning as suggested by training under flaxedil

Serotonin, Stress, and Conditioning

Event Abstract Back to Event Dopamine release in response to unconditioned and conditioned aversive stimuli Andrew M. Young1* 1 University of Leicester, School of Psychology, United Kingdom Many studies, mainly using brain microdialysis, have reported increases in dopamine release in nucleus accumbens during presentation of aversive stimuli, such as tail pinch, mild foot shock, and restraint. Moreover, neutral stimuli such as tone, also evoke dopamine release in this brain region when they predict the onset of an aversive stimulus, by virtue of having previously been conditioned, but not when they are unconditioned [3,4]. However, the temporal and spatial resolution offered by microdialysis, even with 1 minute sampling [3], make it difficult to draw conclusions about the specific role of dopamine in these situations.Fast cyclic voltammetry (FCV) measures the oxidation of dopamine at a carbon fibre microelectrode implanted in brain tissue. Initial studies used anaesthetized animals, or brain slice preparations [2], but recent technical developments have enabled FCV to be implemented in conscious, freely moving animals [1,3]. We are therefore now able to measurement dopamine in very localized brain areas, at sub-second time resolution, in behaving animals. We have used FCV in freely moving rats to measure dopamine release during the presentation of unconditioned and conditioned aversive stimuli. These include mild footshock, a neutral low intensity tone stimulus, the same low intensity tone stimulus rendered motivationally salient, by virtue of having previously been paired with footshock in a conditioning procedure, and an intrinsically aversive (high intensity) tone. The results enable us to understand better the role of dopamine in responses to motivational and non-motivational stimuli.

In Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning, the conditioned response (CR) is highly lateralized to the eye to which the unconditioned stimulus (US) has been directed. However, the initial conditioning of one eye can facilitate subsequent conditioning of the other eye, a phenomenon known as the intereye transfer (IET) effect. Because a conditioned emotional response (CER), as well as the eyeblink CR, is acquired during eyeblink conditioning and influences the development of the CR, the CER acquired in initial training can plausibly account for the IET effect. To evaluate this possibility, the present study utilized previously determined eyeblink conditioning procedures that effectively decouple the degree of CER and CR development to investigate the IET effect. In each of 3 experiments rabbits were initially trained with comparison procedures that differentially favored the development of the eyeblink CR or the CER, prior to a shift of the US to the alternate eye. The observed differences in the IET suggest that the effect depends largely on the specific development of eyeblink CRs rather than the CER. The neurobiological implications of this apparent bilaterality of the eyeblink CR are discussed.

Four experiments used between- and within-subject designs to examine appetitive–aversive interactions in rats. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of an excitatory appetitive conditioned stimulus (CS) on acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear. In Experiment 1, a CS shocked in a compound with an appetitive excitor (i.e., a stimulus previously paired with sucrose) underwent greater fear conditioning than a CS shocked in a compound with a neutral stimulus. Conversely, in Experiment 2, a CS extinguished in a compound with an appetitive excitor underwent less extinction than a CS extinguished in a compound with a neutral stimulus. Experiments 3 and 4 compared the amount of fear conditioning to an appetitive excitor and a familiar but neutral target CS when the compound of these stimuli was paired with shock. In each experiment, more fear accrued to the appetitive excitor than to the neutral CS. These results show that an appetitive excitor influences acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear to a neutral CS and itself undergoes a greater associative change than the neutral CS across compound conditioning. They are discussed with respect to the role of motivational information in regulating an associative change in appetitive–aversive interactions.