title: The relationship between behavior acquisition and persistence abilities: Involvement of adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
abstract: The influence of the learning process on the persistence of the newly acquired behavior is relevant both for our knowledge of the learning/memory mechanisms and for the educational policy. However, it is unclear whether during an operant conditioning process with a continuous reinforcement paradigm, individual differences in acquisition are also associated to differences in persistence of the acquired behavior. In parallel, adult neurogenesis has been implicated in spatial learning and memory, but the specific role of the immature neurons born in the adult brain is not well known for this process. We have addressed both questions by analyzing the relationship between water maze task acquisition scores, the persistence of the acquired behavior, and the size of the different subpopulations of immature neurons in the adult murine hippocampus. We have found that task acquisition and persistence rates were negatively correlated: the faster the animals find the water maze platform at the end of acquisition stage, the less they persist in searching for it at the learned position in a subsequent non-reinforced trial; accordingly, the correlation in the number of some new neurons' subpopulations and the acquisition rate is negative while with persistence in acquired behavior is positive. These findings reveal an unexpected relationship between the efficiency to learn a task and the persistence of the new behavior after a non-reinforcement paradigm, and suggest that the immature neurons might be involved in different roles in acquisition and persistence/extinction of a learning task. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology Department, Cajal Institute-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gradari
authors.affiliation: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology Department, Cajal Institute-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pérez-Domper
authors.affiliation: Butler Scientifics, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ray G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Physiology and Pharmacology Department, School of Medicine, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez-Cué
authors.affiliation: Systems and Functional Neurobiology Department, Cajal Institute-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gonzalo G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: de Polavieja
authors.affiliation: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology Department, Cajal Institute-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Trejo
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000502:physiology
keywords: adult hippocampal neurogenesis; behavioral persistence; extinction; immature neurons; task acquisition