Cerebellar vermis: essential for classically conditioned bradycardia in the rat.
The effects of lesions of the cerebellar vermis on the acquisition of heart-rate conditioning in rats was examined. Lesions of the vermis severely attenuated the acquisition of conditioned bradycardic responses in a simple conditioning procedure in restrained rats. Importantly, the vermal lesions did not affect resting heart-rate, unconditioned heart-rate orienting responses to a tone stimulus or unconditioned heart-rate responses to the shock unconditioned stimulus. It is concluded that the cerebellar vermis is an essential component of a heart-rate conditioned response circuit in the rat. The similarities between these effects and those following manipulations of the amygdala are discussed.
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W F
WF
Dartmouth College, Department of Psychology, Hanover, NH 03755.
Leaton
R N
RN
D000818:Animals; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats