Transient decline in rats' hippocampal theta power relates to inhibitory stimulus-reward association

The hippocampus is important in learning during a discrimination-reversal task. In this task, animals first learn to emit the go response to one stimulus and the no-go response to another stimulus (S1+, S2-) during the discrimination phase, and then they learn to reverse these relationships between stimulus and response during the reversal phase (S1-, S2+). To emit a no-go response for non-reinforced trial during the reversal phase, animals needed to inhibit the previously learned response pattern. This study examined the relationship between the reversal phase of the discrimination-reversal task and hippocampal electric activity in operant conditioning. The results revealed that hippocampal theta power transiently declined during the non-reinforced trial in the reversal phase compared with that during the discrimination phase. This decrease was observed during the 400-600-ms epoch after the onset of stimulus presentation. This study suggested that transient decline in hippocampal theta power is related to negative memory retrieval.