Summary
Neural unit activity has been recorded from the subcortical portions of the auditory system and surrounding structures during differential appetitive conditioning and reversal in rats. The goal has been to identify and characterize the circuitry involved in learned changes in response to auditory stimuli which are made behaviorally significant by pairing with food pellet presentation. During a single conditioning session, probes throughout the medial division of medial geniculate, the external nucleus of inferior colliculus, an anterior medial portion of inferior colliculus, and the deep portion of superior colliculus showed response enhancements which were selective for the tone paired with pellet presentation. These enhancements started as early as the first 30 ms after stimulus onset and persisted for at least 200 ms. With repeated reversal sessions the locus of points where units continued to show selective enhancement became much more restricted. Within the region of the medial geniculate, only probes in the most caudal portion showed selective enhancement throughout differential conditioning and reversal sessions. No units were found in inferior colliculus which did so. Within the deep portion of superior colliculus and subadjacent tegmentum 73% of auditory responsive units within the most posteriorregion showed selective enhancement throughout differential conditioning and reversal. No units in the most anterior region did so.
The known topographically organized sensory and motor relationships of neurons in some of the above regions suggest the possibility that these enhancements of response to auditory stimuli paired with food presentation may be functioning to connect the auditory stimuli with particular behavioral responses. With successive reversal sessions, as the behavioral response becomes more efficient, the number of neurons involved might become more restricted. The response enhancements are, however, much more closely time locked to stimulus onset than to behavior onset. The units are therefore not simply behaving in a pre-motor fashion. The fact that neurons in some of these regions have topographically organized relationships to both sensory stimuli and to behavior also suggests that the task of describing the sequence of changes which leads to a new behavioral response to a previously neutral stimulus may be more amenable to analysis than might have been thought.
Keywords
- Auditory Stimulus
- Superior Colliculus
- Inferior Colliculus
- Conditioning Session
- Differential Conditioning
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Altman, J., and Carpenter, M., 1961, Fiber projections of the superior colliculus in the cat, J. Comp. Neurol., 116: 157–166.
Birt, D., and Olds, M. E., 1981, Associative response changes in lateral midbrain tegmentum and medial geniculate during differential appetitive conditioning. J. Neurophysiol., 46: 1039–1055.
Birt, D., Nienhuis, R., and Olds, J., 1978, Effects of bilateral auditory cortex ablation on behavior and unit activity in rat inferior colliculus during differential conditioning, J. Neurophysiol., 41: 705–715.
Birt, D., Nienhuis, R. and Olds, M., 1979, Separation of associative from non-associative short latency changes in medial geniculate and inferior colliculus during differential conditioning and reversal in rats., Brain Res., 167: 129–138.
Blakemore, C. and Donaghy, M. J., 1980, Coordination of head and eyes in the gaze changing behaviour of cats, J. Physiol., 300: 317–335.
Drager, U. C., and Hubel, D. H., 1975, Responses to visual stimulation and relationship between visual, auditory, and somatosensory inputs in mouse superior colliculus, J. Neurophysiol., 38: 690–713.
Foster, K., Orona, E., Lambert, R., and Gabriel, M., 1980, Neuronal activity in the auditory system during differential conditioning in rabbits, Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., 6: 424.
Gabriel, M., Miller, J. D.,and Saltwick, S. E., 1976, Multiple-activity of the rabbit medial geniculate nucleus in conditioning, extinction, and reversal, Physiol. Psychol., 4: 124–134, 1976.
Gordon, B., 1973, Receptive fields in deep layers of cat superior colliculus, J. Neurophysiol., 36: 157–178.
Graham, J., 1977, An autoradiographic study of the efferent connections of the superior colliculus in the cat, J. Comp. Neurol., 173: 629–654.
Hopkins, W., and Weinberger, N. M., 1980, Modification of auditory cortex single unit activity during pupillary conditioning, Soc. Neurosci. Absts., 6: 424.
Mays, L. E., and Sparks, D. L., 1980, Dissociation of visual and saccade-related responses in superior colliculus neurons, J. Neurophysiol., 43: 207–232.
Mulas, A., Longoni, R., Spina, L., Del Fiacco M., and DiChiara, G., 1981, Ipsiversive turning behaviour after discrete lesions of the dorsal mesencephalic reticular formation by kainic acid, Brain Res., 208: 468–473.
Olds, J., Disterhoft, J., Segal, M., Kornblith, C., and Hirsh, R., 1972, Learning centers of the rat brain mapped by measuring latencies of conditioned unit responses, J. Neurophysiol., 35: 202–219.
Olds, J., Nienhuis, R., and Olds, M. E., 1978, Patterns of conditioned unit responses in the auditory system of the rat, 59: 209–228.
Parker, S. M., Russo, R. C., Mink, J. W., and Sinnamon, H. M., 1981, Forward locomotion in the diencephalon and mesencephalon mapped by electrical stimulation, Soc. Neurosci. Absts., 7: 753.
Peck, C. K., Schlag-Rey, and Schlag, J., 1980, Visuo-oculomotor properties of cells in the superior colliculus of the alert cat, J. Comp. Neurol., 194: 97–116.
Rafols,.J., and Matzke, H., 1970, Efferent projections of the superior colliculus in the opossum, J. Comp. Neurol., 138: 147–160.
Ryugo, D. K., and Weinberger, N. M., 1978, Differential plasticity of morphologically distinct neuron populations in the medial geniculate body of the cat during classical conditioning, Behay. J3iol., 22: 275–301.
Schiller, P. H., and Stryker, M., 1972, Single-unit recording and stimulation in superior colliculus of the alert rhesus monkey, J. Neurophysiol., 41: 55–64.
Tarlov, E. C., and Moore, R. Y., 1966, The tecto-thalamic connections in the brain of the rabbit, J. Comp. Neurol., 126: 403–422.
Wurtz, R. H., and Albano, J. E., 1980, Visual-motor function of the primate superior colliculus, Ann. Rev. Neurosci., 3: 189–226.
Wurtz, R. H., Goldberg, M. E., and Robinson, D. L., 1980, Behavioral modulation of visual responses in the monkey: Stimulus selection for attention and movement, Prog. Psychobiol. Physiol. Psychol., 9: 44–86.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1982 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Birt, D., Olds, M.E. (1982). Auditory Response Enhancement During Differential Conditioning in Behaving Rats. In: Woody, C.D. (eds) Conditioning. Advances in Behavioral Biology, vol 26. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0701-4_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0701-4_34
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-0703-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-0701-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive