Learning Flashcards
What long term synaptic changes occur in habituation?
Less presynaptic terminals of sensory neurons
Increase likelihood of behavior
Reinforcement
What is the purpose of habituation?
Allow the organism to ignore old or non-important cues and focus on learning new or important info
In fear conditioning, where does info about the CS and UCS converge?
Lateral nucleus of the amygdala
Learned reaction to a CS. Sam effect as UCR
Conditioned response
Three categories of responses to environment
Reflexes, instincts, and learning
What are habituation and sensitization both focused around?
Repetition of stimuli
How does the brain get information about UCSs?
Climbing fibers from the inferior olive (auditory pathway) of the medulla synapse on Purkinje fibers
How does learning occur in classical conditioning?
If the climbing fiber (UCS) and parallel fiber (CS) synapses onto a purkinje cell are activated at the same time
Is reinforcement or punishment more effective?
Reinforcement
What supports the amygdala’s role in fear conditioning?
Lesion, recording (more activity in fear conditioning), and application of NMDA antagonist (block and the fear response goes away)
What happens if you lesion the hippocampus of an animal after they have already gone through a water maze?
It is like they have never gone through the maze before and it is their first time
DIAGRAM ON PAGE 23
DIAGRAM ON PAGE 23
Why was eyeblink classical conditioned studied in rabbits?
They have a nictitating membrane which is an extra membrane on the eyes that acts like a second eyelid
What part of the brain provides information about CSs and how does it communicate the info?
Cerebellar granule cells. Receive input via mossy fibers from the pons and communicate with the purkinje cells via parallel fibers
What is the purpose of sensitization?
Allow the organism to focus on dangerous, irritating, or annoying stimuli. Inc response in hopes of it going away
Consequences of a behavior shape future performance
Operant conditioning
What can reinforcement and punishment both be?
Positive (add something) or negative (take something away)
Unlearned reaction to a UCS
Unconditioned response
Neuronal activity to reflexes
Single stimulus causes sensory neuron to release NT which causes motor neuron to release NT which causes a reaction
Where do the cerebellar granule cells receive info from and pass it to and how?
Receive input via mossy fibers from the pons and communicate with the purkinje cells via parallel fibers
Three tests of spatial learning
Mazes, water mazes, and food caching
What part of the brain is involved in classical conditioning? Involved in learning and movement
Cerebellum
Grid cells. “Whats the environment”
Entorhinal cortex
What area of the brain is needed for learning to occur that was found in rabbits?
Interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum
Change in magnitude of response to environmental events. Habituation and sensitization
Non-associative learning
Difference between habituation and sensory adaptation
Habituation: Decrease the response
Sensory adaptation: Decreasing perception
Experience of one strong stimulus heightens the behavioral response to subsequent stimuli
Sensitization
Initially neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to signal important biological events. Learned cause
Conditioned stimulus
What happens at synapses in habituation and why?
Reduced activity at synapse between sensory and motor neurons; they reduce less NTs. It is a direct result of decreased glutamate release
What does trace conditioning require?
Participation of forebrain areas and conscious, declarative processes
What type of learning is dependent on the hippocampal formation?
Spatial learning
What happens at synapses in sensitization and why?
Serotonin releases (from interneuron) promotes enhanced glutamate release (from sensory neuron). More NT is released
What are long term habituation and long term sensitization related to?
CREB protein which plays an active role in memory formation across the animal kingdom
Fear conditioning pathway
CS and UCS to lateral amygdala to response selection network to output areas including central nucleus to behavior including freezing, approach, avoidance, fighting, escape, reward seeking
What 3 areas combine to help an animal navigate?
Hippocampus, subiculum, and entorhinal cortex
The CS overlaps the UCS; there is no stimulus free interval
Delay conditioning
Event that elicits response without prior experience
Unconditioned stimulus
What long term synaptic changes occur in sensitization?
More presynaptic terminals of sensory neurons, more dendrites on motor neurons
What is disinhibition?
When the climbing fiber (UCS) and parallel fiber (CS) synapses onto a purkinje cell are activated at the same time
Decrease in strength of occurrence of behavioral response after repeated exposure to stimulus
Habituation
Place cells. “Where am I”
Hippocampus
What do purkinje cells do in classical conditioning?
They synapse on output cells in the interpositus nucleus and send stopping signals which mean go
What happens to the lateral interpositus nucleus in classical conditioning?
It becomes disinhibited, allowing increased response to a CS alone
Decreases likelihood of behavior
Punishment
Connection between two elements or events. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Associative learning
How does age relate to classical conditioning and why?
Young people or animals learn classical conditioning faster. Age-related shrinkage of the cerebellum predicts time needed to learn a classically conditioned response
What does the red nucleus do?
Projects to facial and abducens nuclei controlling reflexive eyeblink
Is trace or delay conditioning easier and why?
Delay is easier because there is no stimulus free period; there is no delay between the CS and UCS
The CS and the UCS do not overlap; a stimulus free interval occurs
Trace conditioning
What happens to purkinje cells in classical conditioning?
They become less responsive to glutamate and show long term depression (type of plasticity)
Direction cells. “Where am I going”
Subiculum
What does an NMDA antagonist do?
Causes the fear response to go away
What is the lateral interpositus nucleus important for?
Learning eyeblink conditioning
What happens in the sham control and cortical control in a water maze?
They solve the maze quickly based on previous experience
What initiates a conditioned fear response and how?
The central nucleus of the amygdala by contacting output areas in the hypothalamus and periaqueductal gray
