Resurgence of integrated behavioral units

Area of Science:

• Behavioral neuroscience
• Animal behavior studies

Background:

• Understanding how learned behaviors are organized and retrieved is crucial in behavioral science.
• Investigating the impact of changing reinforcement schedules on established response sequences provides insight into behavioral flexibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the dynamics of well-learned response sequences in rats when reinforcement contingencies are altered.
• To determine if extinction-induced resurgence of previously reinforced sequences indicates integrated behavioral units.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with rats, each involving four phases.
• Each phase reinforced a specific two-response sequence of lever presses until stable, followed by shifting to a new reinforced sequence.

Main Results:

• Extinction-induced resurgence of previously reinforced and extinguished response sequences was observed in all subjects.
• Response sequence errors were influenced by the terminal response of the current sequence, not the previous one.
• Evidence suggests that sequence-level and response-level processes operate simultaneously.

Conclusions:

• Previously reinforced response sequences function as integrated behavioral units controlled at the sequence level.
• Resurgence and the development of integrated behavioral units can be dissociated.
• Simultaneous operation of sequence-level and response-level processes in integrated behavioral units was demonstrated.