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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
Published on: June 2, 2014
Movement as a signal during classical conditioning
1Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, U.S.S.R. Academy Science, Moscow.
Abstract:
Analysis of the available data and that of the author disclosed the peculiarities of motor reaction when used as a conditioned stimulus. The author's data showed that if signal value is attributed to a motor reaction (passive movement or movement evoked by the direct stimulation of the motor cortex), the changes of excitability in the motor cortex representation of the dog's leg depend on the biological sign of the reinforcing stimulus during classic conditioning. They also remained the same during instrumental conditioning and were opposite in sign, showed increased excitability in the food situation, and decreased excitability in the defense situation. Using the movement as a conditional stimulus, we managed to uncover the commonality between classic and instrumental conditioning. This enabled us to answer questions, discussed by Pavlov and Guthrie, which, it seems to us, had not been convincingly answered during their time.
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