Activity of spinal trigeminal pars oralis and adjacent reticular formation units during differential conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response.
Spinal trigeminal nucleus pars oralis (SpoV) is anatomically linked to brain circuitry thought to subserve unconditioned and conditioned nictitating membrane responses in rabbit. Single-unit recording from SpoV and adjacent reticular formation obtained during conditioning from awake, behaving animals revealed modulation of unit firing related to CS, US, and CR occurrence. SpoV participates directly in the unconditioned response and probably relays US information to other brain areas subserving conditioning. The presence of CR-related activity suggests that SpoV may participate in the CR motor output pathway, and may also provide CR-related information to cerebellum. Sensory convergence and CR-related activity in reticular formation mark this structure as a candidate locus of primary neuronal plasticity in this example of conditioning.
Richards
W G
WG
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003.
Ricciardi
T N
TN
Moore
J W
JW
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009541:Nictitating Membrane / Q000502:physiology; D011817:Rabbits; D012154:Reticular Formation / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014278:Trigeminal Nuclei / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*