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Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2015Recent neuropsychological theories emphasize the influence of maladaptive learning and memory processes on pain perception. However, the precise relationship between... (Review)
Review
Recent neuropsychological theories emphasize the influence of maladaptive learning and memory processes on pain perception. However, the precise relationship between these processes as well as the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood; especially the role of perceptual discrimination and its modulation by associative fear learning has received little attention so far. Experimental work with exteroceptive stimuli consistently points to effects of fear learning on perceptual discrimination acuity. In addition, clinical observations have revealed that in individuals with chronic pain perceptual discrimination is impaired, and that tactile discrimination training reduces pain. Based on these findings, we present a theoretical model of which the central tenet is that associative fear learning contributes to the development of chronic pain through impaired interoceptive and proprioceptive discrimination acuity.
Topics: Animals; Association Learning; Brain; Chronic Pain; Discrimination Learning; Discrimination, Psychological; Fear; Humans; Models, Psychological
PubMed: 25603316
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.01.009 -
Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE Mar 2018Olfaction is the predominant sensory modality in mice and influences many important behaviors, including foraging, predator detection, mating, and parenting....
Olfaction is the predominant sensory modality in mice and influences many important behaviors, including foraging, predator detection, mating, and parenting. Importantly, mice can be trained to associate novel odors with specific behavioral responses to provide insight into olfactory circuit function. This protocol details the procedure for training mice on a Go/No-Go operant learning task. In this approach, mice are trained on hundreds of automated trials daily for 2-4 weeks and can then be tested on novel Go/No-Go odor pairs to assess olfactory discrimination, or be used for studies on how odor learning alters the structure or function of the olfactory circuit. Additionally, the mouse olfactory bulb (OB) features ongoing integration of adult-born neurons. Interestingly, olfactory learning increases both the survival and synaptic connections of these adult-born neurons. Therefore, this protocol can be combined with other biochemical, electrophysiological, and imaging techniques to study learning and activity-dependent factors that mediate neuronal survival and plasticity.
Topics: Animals; Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; Mice; Reproducibility of Results; Smell
PubMed: 29630042
DOI: 10.3791/57142 -
Vision Research Jul 2018Through same-different judgements, we can discriminate an immense variety of stimuli and consequently, they are critical in our everyday interaction with the...
Through same-different judgements, we can discriminate an immense variety of stimuli and consequently, they are critical in our everyday interaction with the environment. The quality of the judgements depends on familiarity with stimuli. A way to improve the discrimination is through learning, but to this day, we lack direct evidence of how learning shapes the same-different judgments with complex stimuli. We studied unsupervised visual discrimination learning in 42 participants, as they performed same-different judgments with two types of unfamiliar complex stimuli in the absence of labeling or individuation. Across nine daily training sessions with equiprobable same and different stimuli pairs, participants increased the sensitivity and the criterion by reducing the errors with both same and different pairs. With practice, there was a superior performance for different pairs and a bias for different response. To evaluate the process underlying this bias, we manipulated the proportion of same and different pairs, which resulted in an additional proportion-induced bias, suggesting that the bias observed with equal proportions was a stimulus processing bias. Overall, these results suggest that unsupervised discrimination learning occurs through changes in the stimulus processing that increase the sensory evidence and/or the precision of the working memory. Finally, the acquired discrimination ability was fully transferred to novel exemplars of the practiced stimuli category, in agreement with the acquisition of a category specific perceptual expertise.
Topics: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention; Bias; Discrimination Learning; Female; Humans; Male; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Photic Stimulation
PubMed: 29775623
DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2018.05.002 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Oct 2022Considerable discussion has concerned the role of context in conditional discrimination learning. Some authors have proposed that contexts might operate hierarchically...
Considerable discussion has concerned the role of context in conditional discrimination learning. Some authors have proposed that contexts might operate hierarchically on CS-US associations, whereas others have proposed that the context plus the CS might be processed configurally. In the present article, we report the results of two experiments that assessed the role of context on pigeons' conditional discrimination learning. In Experiment 1, we found that our pigeons' responding was inconsistent with hierarchical processing; instead, they may have either relied on local features or on configural compounds comprising the context and the discriminative stimulus presented on each trial. In Experiment 2, we precluded the possibility of using local features by requiring the pigeons to attend to both of the compounds that were simultaneously presented on each trial to solve the task. Methodological and theoretical issues are discussed in light of this work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Animals; Discrimination Learning; Columbidae; Conditioning, Classical
PubMed: 36265025
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000342 -
The Journal of Physiology Jun 2009The visual cortex retains the capacity for experience-dependent changes, or plasticity, of cortical function and cortical circuitry, throughout life. These changes... (Review)
Review
The visual cortex retains the capacity for experience-dependent changes, or plasticity, of cortical function and cortical circuitry, throughout life. These changes constitute the mechanism of perceptual learning in normal visual experience and in recovery of function after CNS damage. Such plasticity can be seen at multiple stages in the visual pathway, including primary visual cortex. The manifestation of the functional changes associated with perceptual learning involve both long term modification of cortical circuits during the course of learning, and short term dynamics in the functional properties of cortical neurons. These dynamics are subject to top-down influences of attention, expectation and perceptual task. As a consequence, each cortical area is an adaptive processor, altering its function in accordance to immediate perceptual demands.
Topics: Adult; Animals; Cerebral Cortex; Discrimination Learning; Form Perception; Humans; Learning; Neuronal Plasticity; Perception
PubMed: 19525560
DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2009.171488 -
Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands) Feb 2016In laboratory dogs, aging leads to a decline in various cognitive domains such as learning, memory and behavioural flexibility. However, much less is known about aging...
In laboratory dogs, aging leads to a decline in various cognitive domains such as learning, memory and behavioural flexibility. However, much less is known about aging in pet dogs, i.e. dogs that are exposed to different home environments by their caregivers. We used tasks on a touchscreen apparatus to detect differences in various cognitive functions across pet Border Collies aged from 5 months to 13 years. Ninety-five dogs were divided into five age groups and tested in four tasks: (1) underwater photo versus drawing discrimination, (2) clip art picture discrimination, (3) inferential reasoning by exclusion and (4) a memory test with a retention interval of 6 months. The tasks were designed to test three cognitive abilities: visual discrimination learning, logical reasoning and memory. The total number of sessions to reach criterion and the number of correction trials needed in the two discrimination tasks were compared across age groups. The results showed that both measures increased linearly with age, with dogs aged over 13 years displaying slower learning and reduced flexibility in comparison to younger dogs. Inferential reasoning ability increased with age, but less than 10 % of dogs showed patterns of choice consistent with inference by exclusion. No age effect was found in the long-term memory test. In conclusion, the discrimination learning tests used are suitable to detect cognitive aging in pet dogs, which can serve as a basis for comparison to help diagnose cognition-related problems and as a tool to assist with the development of treatments to delay cognitive decline.
Topics: Aging; Animals; Attention; Cognition; Cognition Disorders; Discrimination Learning; Disease Models, Animal; Dogs; Memory; Visual Perception
PubMed: 26728398
DOI: 10.1007/s11357-015-9866-x -
Psychopharmacology Jan 2019This article reviews recent research on the extinction of instrumental (or operant) conditioning from the perspective that it is an example of a general retroactive... (Review)
Review
This article reviews recent research on the extinction of instrumental (or operant) conditioning from the perspective that it is an example of a general retroactive interference process. Previous discussions of interference have focused primarily on findings from Pavlovian conditioning. The present review shows that extinction in instrumental learning has much in common with other examples of retroactive interference in instrumental learning (e.g., omission learning, punishment, second-outcome learning, discrimination reversal learning, and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior). In each, the original learning can be largely retained after conflicting information is learned, and behavior is cued or controlled by the current context. The review also suggests that a variety of stimuli can play the role of context, including room and apparatus cues, temporal cues, drug state, deprivation state, stress state, and recent reinforcers, discrete cues, or behaviors. In instrumental learning situations, the context can control behavior through its direct association with the reinforcer or punisher, through its hierarchical relation with response-outcome associations, or its direct association (inhibitory or excitatory) with the response. In simple instrumental extinction and habit learning, the latter mechanism may play an especially important role.
Topics: Animals; Conditioning, Classical; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; Discrimination Learning; Extinction, Psychological; Humans; Reinforcement, Psychology; Reversal Learning
PubMed: 30350221
DOI: 10.1007/s00213-018-5076-4 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... Jan 1963Responses to S- ("errors") are not a necessary condition for the formation of an operant discrimination of color. Errors do not occur if discrimination training begins...
Responses to S- ("errors") are not a necessary condition for the formation of an operant discrimination of color. Errors do not occur if discrimination training begins early in conditioning and if S+ and S- initially differ with respect to brightness, duration and wavelength. After training starts, S-'s duration and brightness is progressively increased until S+ and S- differ only with respect to wavelength. Errors do occur if training starts after much conditioning in the presence of S+ has occurred or if S+ and S- differ only with respect to wavelength throughout training. Performance following discrimination learning without errors lacks three characteristics that are found following learning with errors. Only those birds that learned the discrimination with errors showed (1) "emotional" responses in the presence of S-, (2) an increase in the rate (or a decrease in the latency) of its response to S+, and (3) occasional bursts of responses to S-.
Topics: Conditioning, Classical; Discrimination Learning
PubMed: 13980667
DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-1 -
Behavioural Brain Research Feb 2021Inaccurate discrimination between threat and safety cues is a common symptom of anxiety disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although females... (Review)
Review
Inaccurate discrimination between threat and safety cues is a common symptom of anxiety disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although females experience higher rates of these disorders than males, the body of literature examining sex differences in safety learning is still growing. Learning to discriminate safety cues from threat cues requires downregulating fear to the safety cue while continuing to express fear to the threat cue. However, successful discrimination between safety and threat cues does not necessarily guarantee that the safety cue can effectively reduce fear to the threat cue when they are presented together. The conditioned inhibitory ability of a safety cue to reduce fear in the presence of both safety and threat is most likely dependent on the ability to discriminate between the two. There are relatively few studies exploring conditioned inhibition as a method of safety learning. Adding to this knowledge gap is the general lack of inclusion of female subjects within these studies. In this review, we provide a qualitative review of our current knowledge of sex differences in safety discrimination versus conditioned inhibition in both humans and rodents. Overall, the literature suggests that while females and males perform similarly in discrimination learning, females show deficits in conditioned inhibition compared to males. Furthermore, while estrogen appears to have a protective effect on safety learning in humans, increased estrogen in female rodents appears to be correlated with impaired safety learning performance.
Topics: Animals; Conditioning, Classical; Discrimination Learning; Estrogens; Fear; Female; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Male; Safety; Sex Characteristics
PubMed: 33290755
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.113024 -
Behavioural Brain Research Jan 2021Generalized fear is one purported mechanism of anxiety that is a target of clinical and basic research. Impaired fear discrimination has been primarily examined from the...
Generalized fear is one purported mechanism of anxiety that is a target of clinical and basic research. Impaired fear discrimination has been primarily examined from the perspective of increased fear learning, rather than how learning about non-threatening stimuli affects fear discrimination. To address this question, we tested how three Safety Conditioning protocols with varied levels of salience allocated to the safety cue compared to classic Fear Conditioning in their impact on subsequent innate anxiety, and differential fear learning of new aversive and neutral cues. Using a high anxiety strain of mice (129SvEv, Taconic), we show that Fear Conditioned animals show little exploration of the anxiogenic center of an open field 24 h later, and poor discrimination during new differential conditioning 7 days later. Three groups of mice underwent Safety Conditioning, (i) the safety tone was unpaired with a shock, (ii) the safety tone was unpaired with the shock and co-terminated with a house light signaling the end of the safety period, and (iii) the safety tone was unpaired with the shock and its beginning co-occurred with a house light, signaling the start of a safety period. Mice from all Safety Conditioning groups showed higher levels of open field exploration than the Fear Conditioned mice 24 h after training. Furthermore, Safety Conditioned animals showed improved discrimination learning of a novel non-threat, with the Salient Beginning safety conditioned group performing best. These findings indicate that high anxiety animals benefit from salient safety training to improve exploration and discrimination of new non-threating stimuli.
Topics: Animals; Anxiety; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Classical; Discrimination Learning; Disease Models, Animal; Emotional Regulation; Fear; Male; Mice; Mice, 129 Strain; Safety
PubMed: 32956774
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112907