Animal behaviour Flashcards
Pavlovian conditioning
Acquisition of a new response to a previously neutral stimulus as a result of experiencing a predictive relationship between it and a biologically relevant stimulus
CS-US associations
Made in the lateral nucleus
Conditioned stimulus triggers response via the unconditional stimulus so devaluing food would stop salivation
CS-response associations
Uses Hebbian principle to increase synaptic weight between CS and conditioned result via coincidental stimulation with US
e.g rabbit eye blink conditioning
Rescorla-Wagner model
Explains blocking
Change in associative strength of synapses is greatest when there is most surprise
Instrumental (operant) conditioning:
Experimental procedures in which a contingency is arranged between the animal’s behaviour and an outcome
The outcome depends on the animal’s behaviour
Conditioning makes the behaviour more likely to occur
Goal directed behaviour
Action-outcome learning with lever press linked to food so devaluing food will stop the pressing
Overtraining can make this more like a stimulus-response
Interactions between Pavlovian and Instrumental processes
1) Pavlovian to instrumental transfer i.e pavlovian conditioning to the same reward can enhance goal-directed response on the lever
2) Conditioned reinforcement: animal will work for a conditioned stimulus that is no longer given with reinforcement
Principle of antithesis
Opposite emotions have opposite behavioural displays to avoid misinterpretation even if that behaviour is not beneficial
What is needed for sham rate
Posterior hypothalamus
Limbic cortex lesions
Rage
So may be associated with emotion
Kluver Bucy syndrome
Due to removal of amygdala
Get hyperorality, hypersexuality, emotional unresponsiveness
Amygdala role
Needed for fear containing
There is shortcut from visual/auditory thalamus(LGN/MGN) to here so lesioning primary cortices doesn’t stop association
What is needed for contextual conditioning
Amygdala, hippocampus
cued just needs hippocampus
Use of Diazepan
Increases GABA levels, rats spend more time in open part of maze so less anxious
Can show its specifically in amygdala by injecting systemically and blocking amygdala
Orbitogrontal cortex involvement
How emotional stimuli influence behaviour i.e. value for the behaviour
Cingulate cortex
Emotional significance of stimuli
Ventral striatum
Motivation
Goal directed and habit learning
Psychometric tests
Use questionaires e.g DIAS
Impulsivity
actions which are poorly conceived, prematurely expressed, unduly risky or inappropriate to situation and that often result in undesirable consequences
What affects stop signal reaction time
Dopamine from substantial nigra acting on the striatum
- Blocking D1 gives inhibition of movement so shorter SSRI
D2 is opposite
Impulsivity and impatience
Different mechanism for this (waiting) and stopping (SSRT)
Decreased D2 receptor availability found
Impulsive aggression
Delay discounting task
High delay intolerance related to lower 5-HIAA in urine
Plus low serotonin levels associated with more aggression in monkeys
Citalopram/Fluoxetine
SSRI for impulsive aggression
Compulsive/stereotypic behaviours
Actions which persist inappropriately to the situation, have no obvious relationship to the overall goal and which often result in undesirable consequences
