Pavlovian conditioning in Hermissenda: a circuit analysis

An understanding of associative learning requires (1) an adequate description of the experimental conditions under which learning is produced, (2) a knowledge of what is learned or the determination of the content of learning, and (3) an explanation of how learning generates changes in behavior (Rescorla, 1980). These basic issues are being addressed at both the behavioral and cellular/molecular levels by the analysis of associative learning in animals with relatively uncomplex nervous systems. Use of Pavlovian conditioning of invertebrates as a model for associative learning has led to the identification of cellular and synaptic mechanisms underlying the formation of basic associations. However, an understanding of the associative processes that form the basis for Pavlovian conditioning requires an explanation not only of the mechanisms of temporal contiguity or predictability between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US), but also of how changes produced in the nervous system by conditioning are expressed in behavior. Studies with invertebrates have provided the opportunity to examine how associative learning is expressed in the neural circuitry that supports the generation of learned behavior.