Operant and Pavlovian control of visual stimulus orienting and food-related behaviors in rats with lesions of the amygdala central nucleus.
The effects of superimposing operant reward and omission contingencies on 2 Pavlovian conditioned responses evoked by a visual conditioned stimulus paired with food were examined in rats with lesions of the amygdala central nucleus (CN). In sham-lesioned rats, the frequency of an orienting response, rearing, was increased by reward contingencies and decreased by omission contingencies, compared with yoked Pavlovian controls. In contrast, in CN-lesioned rats, rearing was not affected by either operant contingency and occurred at lower levels with Pavlovian procedures alone than in sham-lesioned rats. Nevertheless, CN-lesioned and sham-lesioned rats showed similar increases in the frequency of conditioned food-cup behavior with reward contingencies, similar decreases with omission contingencies, and similar levels of that response with Pavlovian procedures.
Holland
Peter C
PC
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Duke University, USA. pch@jhu.edu
Han
Jung-Soo
JS
Winfield
Helena M
HM
D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats