Habituation of distraction to a tone in the absence of neocortex in rats.
Normal rats and rats with in excess of 95% of neocortex surgically removed (decorticated) were trained to push a food tray door on a Fixed Ratio schedule. Once the behaviour was established a 3720 Hz, 70 dB tone was presented 4 times per session and the duration of distraction from the operant baseline was recorded. Both groups of rats habituated to the presence of the tone within a single session and the effects were retained over a 24 h interval. The decorticates, but not the normal animals, showed a partial spontaneous recovery of the habituated response between sessions. It was concluded that neocortex is not required for either short-term or long-term habituation in this situation though long-term habituation is more complete when neocortex is present.
D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009115:Muridae; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology