Fos-like immunoreactivity in locus coeruleus after classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response.
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.
Carrive
P
P
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. p.carrive@unsw.edu.au
Kehoe
E J
EJ
Macrae
M
M
Paxinos
G
G
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
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos