Evidence for spinal conditioning in intact rats. Academic Article

abstract

• Prior work suggests that spinal systems are sensitive to the stimulus relationships that underlie Pavlovian conditioning. We studied this phenomenon in Sprague-Dawley rats by pairing a vibrotactile conditioned stimulus (CS) with a tailshock unconditioned stimulus (US). Experiment 1 showed that spinal rats exhibit differential conditioning, having longer tail-flick latencies on the tail-flick test during a CS that was paired with the US (conditioned antinociception). Experiment 2 showed that rats trained with the cord intact still exhibit differential conditioning after the cord is cut. This suggests that spinal learning contributes to behavioral plasticity in intact subjects.

authors

• Grau, James

published proceedings

• Neurobiol Learn Mem

author list (cited authors)

• Joynes, R. L., Illich, P. A., & Grau, J. W.

citation count

• 5

complete list of authors

• Joynes, RL||Illich, PA||Grau, JW

publication date

• January 1997

publisher

• Elsevier  Publisher

published in

• Neurobiology of Learning and Memory  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Association Learning
• Behavior, Animal
• Conditioning, Classical
• Male
• Random Allocation
• Rats
• Rats, Sprague-Dawley
• Spinal Cord
• Stereotaxic Techniques
• Touch
• Vibration

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1006/nlme.1996.3736

start page

• 64

end page

• 68

volume

• 67

issue

• 1

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/nlme.1996.3736