Reinforcement in an in vitro analog of appetitive classical conditioning of feeding behavior in Aplysia: blockade by a dopamine antagonist. Academic Article

abstract

• In a recently developed in vitro analog of appetitive classical conditioning of feeding in Aplysia, the unconditioned stimulus (US) was electrical stimulation of the esophageal nerve (En). This nerve is rich in dopamine (DA)-containing processes, which suggests that DA mediates reinforcement during appetitive conditioning. To test this possibility, methylergonovine was used to antagonize DA receptors. Methylergonovine (1 nM) blocked the pairing-specific increase in fictive feeding that is usually induced by in vitro classical conditioning. The present results and previous observation that methylergonovine also blocks the effects of contingent reinforcement in an in vitro analog of appetitive operant conditioning suggest that DA mediates reinforcement for appetitive associative conditioning of feeding in Aplysia.

authors

• Baxter, Douglas

published proceedings

• Learn Mem

author list (cited authors)

• Reyes, F. D., Mozzachiodi, R., Baxter, D. A., & Byrne, J. H.

citation count

• 25

complete list of authors

• Reyes, Fredy D||Mozzachiodi, Riccardo||Baxter, Douglas A||Byrne, John H

publication date

• May 2005

publisher

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  Publisher

published in

• Learning and Memory  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Aplysia
• Appetitive Behavior
• Conditioning, Classical
• Dopamine Antagonists
• Electric Stimulation
• Feeding Behavior
• Ganglia, Invertebrate
• Methylergonovine
• Neurons
• Oxytocics
• Reinforcement, Psychology

PubMed Central ID

• 15930499

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1101/lm.92905

start page

• 216

end page

• 220

volume

• 12

issue

• 3

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.92905