title: Neuronal dynamics during the learning of trace conditioning in a CA3 model of hippocampal function.
abstract: The present article develops quantitative behavioral and neurophysiological predictions for rabbits trained on an air-puff version of the trace-interval classical conditioning paradigm. Using a minimal hippocampal model, consisting of 8,000 primary cells sparsely and randomly interconnected as a model of hippocampal region CA-3, the simulations identify conditions which produce a clear split in the number of trials individual animals should need to learn a criterion response. A trace interval that is difficult to learn, but still learnable by half the experimental population, produces a bimodal population of learners: an early learner group and a late learner group. The model predicts that late learners are characterized by two kinds of CA-3 neuronal activity fluctuations that are not seen in the early learners. As is typical in our minimal hippocampal models, the off-rate constant of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor receptor gives a timescale to the model that leads to a temporally quantifiable behavior, the learnable trace interval.
authors.affiliation: Informed Simplifications, LLC 520 Panorama Road, Earlysville, VA 22936 USA.
authors.forename: Blake T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery and Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA.
authors.forename: William B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Levy
keywords: Hippocampus; Neural network; Sequence learning; Trace conditioning