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Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Neurobiology
The Role Of Glutamate In The Medial Prefrontal Cortex In The Acquistion And Expression Of Conditioned Approach, Rudolf Nisanov
The Role Of Glutamate In The Medial Prefrontal Cortex In The Acquistion And Expression Of Conditioned Approach, Rudolf Nisanov
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
A series of experiments were conducted to assess the role of glutamatergic stimulation in the dorsal and ventral regions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in both the acquisition and expression of reward-related learning using a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm, the conditioned-approach paradigm. Rats with surgically implanted cannulas were exposed to Pavlovian conditioning sessions that occurred on three alternative days (acquisition) or seven consecutive days (expression). These 60-min conditioning sessions consisted of 30 pairings of light (CS) and food pellets (US) presented under a random time schedule. After a two-day break, rats underwent a session with no CS or US and …
Neurochemical Signaling Of Reward-Based Learning In Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons, Kyla F. Wholley
Neurochemical Signaling Of Reward-Based Learning In Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons, Kyla F. Wholley
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons signal and participate in reward-related learning. Specifically, dopamine is postulated to encode reward-related environmental stimuli to compute reward prediction errors (RPEs). It is through the computation and maintenance of RPEs that learning occurs. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie how dopamine neurons compute RPEs and facilitate reward-related learning. The present study utilized fiber photometry in conjunction with a Pavlovian reward-based task to identify how GABA inputs to VTA dopamine neurons contribute to the computation of RPEs and reward-based behavior. Activity of GABA inputs to VTA dopamine neurons increased for reward-predicting …