title: Fos-like immunoreactivity in locus coeruleus after classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response.
abstract: We investigated the changes in Fos-like immunoreactivity in the locus coeruleus (LC) after classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane. Specifically, we compared unpaired versus paired presentations of a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and a tactile unconditioned stimulus (US; near the eye). After two training sessions, only paired presentations resulted in acquisition of a conditioned response. This was associated with comparatively less LC Fos expression than with unpaired presentations. Similar observations have been reported for the ventrolateral medulla which is a major source of afferents to LC. The present results are consistent with a role of LC in attention and learning: activity increases as the animal attends to the CS and US. When the relationship between CS and US has been established, LC activity decreases.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. p.carrive@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carrive
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kehoe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Macrae
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paxinos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008125:Locus Coeruleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D009541:Nictitating Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism*; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos