Theta-contingent trial presentation accelerates learning rate and enhances hippocampal plasticity during trace eyeblink conditioning.
Hippocampal theta activity has been established as a key predictor of acquisition rate in rabbit (Orcytolagus cuniculus) classical conditioning. The current study used an online brain--computer interface to administer conditioning trials only in the explicit presence or absence of spontaneous theta activity in the hippocampus-dependent task of trace conditioning. The findings indicate that animals given theta-contingent training learned significantly faster than those given nontheta-contingent training. In parallel with the behavioral results, the theta-triggered group, and not the nontheta-triggered group, exhibited profound increases in hippocampal conditioned unit responses early in training. The results not only suggest that theta-contingent training has a dramatic facilitory effect on trace conditioning but also implicate theta activity in enhancing the plasticity of hippocampal neurons.
Griffin
Amy L
AL
Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA.
Asaka
Yukiko
Y
Darling
Ryan D
RD
Berry
Stephen D
SD
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits; D013826:Theta Rhythm; D013997:Time Factors