Operant reward learning in Aplysia: neuronal correlates and mechanisms. Academic Article

abstract

• Operant conditioning is a form of associative learning through which an animal learns about the consequences of its behavior. Here, we report an appetitive operant conditioning procedure in Aplysia that induces long-term memory. Biophysical changes that accompanied the memory were found in an identified neuron (cell B51) that is considered critical for the expression of behavior that was rewarded. Similar cellular changes in B51 were produced by contingent reinforcement of B51 with dopamine in a single-cell analog of the operant procedure. These findings allow for the detailed analysis of the cellular and molecular processes underlying operant conditioning.

authors

• Baxter, Douglas

published proceedings

• Science

altmetric score

• 9.048

author list (cited authors)

• Brembs, B., Lorenzetti, F. D., Reyes, F. D., Baxter, D. A., & Byrne, J. H.

citation count

• 261

complete list of authors

• Brembs, Björn||Lorenzetti, Fred D||Reyes, Fredy D||Baxter, Douglas A||Byrne, John H

publication date

• January 2002

publisher

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  Publisher

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Aplysia
• Cells, Cultured
• Conditioning, Operant
• Dopamine
• Eating
• Electric Stimulation
• Electrophysiology
• Esophagus
• Feeding Behavior
• Food
• Ganglia, Invertebrate
• Iontophoresis
• Membrane Potentials
• Memory
• Nerve Net
• Neuronal Plasticity
• Neurons
• Patch-Clamp Techniques
• Reinforcement, Psychology
• Reward

PubMed Central ID

• 12040200

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1069434

start page

• 1706

end page

• 1709

volume

• 296

issue

• 5573

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1069434