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Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
Published on: June 2, 2014
Purkinje cell activity during classical conditioning with different conditional stimuli explains central tenet of
Anders Rasmussen1, Riccardo Zucca2, Fredrik Johansson3
1Associative Learning Group, Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; The Linnaeus Centre Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; anders.rasmussen@med.lu.se.
Abstract:
A central tenet of Rescorla and Wagner's model of associative learning is that the reinforcement value of a paired trial diminishes as the associative strength between the presented stimuli increases. Despite its fundamental importance to behavioral sciences, the neural mechanisms underlying the model have not been fully explored. Here, we present findings that, taken together, can explain why a stronger association leads to a reduced reinforcement value, within the context of eyeblink conditioning. Specifically, we show that learned pause responses in Purkinje cells, which trigger adaptively timed conditioned eyeblinks, suppress the unconditional stimulus (US) signal in a graded manner. Furthermore, by examining how Purkinje cells respond to two distinct conditional stimuli and to a compound stimulus, we provide evidence that could potentially help explain the somewhat counterintuitive overexpectation phenomenon, which was derived from the Rescorla-Wagner model.
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