The Progressive Development of Cat's CNV Components with Learning

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the progressive development of cat's contingent negative variation (CNV) components with learning. The CNV wave has been extensively studied in reaction time (RT) tasks. It consists of a negative slow potential (SP) shift, recordable from various cerebral sites, and occurs during the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the warning (S1) and imperative stimulus (S2). It is as well observable in many other tasks, provided that a temporal link between two significant events is involved. Old and recent data obtained in man in time estimation paradigms suggested that CNV basically reflects time estimation processes. A direct relation is obtained between the amplitude of CNV and the accuracy of the response yielded by cats that had to produce 5 sec intervals. In view of such data, it can be assumed that the progressive development of CNV over trials in RT tasks may reflect progressive learning of the particular temporal contingencies relating S1 to S2.