Biological Models of Associative Learning

Steinmetz, Joseph E.; Kim, Jeansok; Thompson, Richard F.

doi:10.1002/0471264385.wei0318

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 330 publications

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“…Animal studies have shown that the critical CS-US association occurs in the anterior interpositus nucleus ( Yeo et al, 1985; Steinmetz et al, 1992; Lavond, 2002), one of the deep cerebellar nuclei. The cortex of the cerebellum is thought to control the expression of conditioned responses and modulate both their timing and amplitude (Garcia & Mauk, 1998; Steinmetz, 2000; Steinmetz et al, 2002). The anterior lobe, through Purkinje cells projecting to the interpositus, appears to play a critical role in response timing, delaying the onset of conditioned responses until just prior to the US onset (Garcia et al, 1999; Perrett et al, 1993).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye-blink conditioning deficits indicate temporal processing abnormalities in schizophrenia

Bolbecker

Mehta

Edwards

et al. 2009

Schizophrenia Research

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Theoretical models suggest that symptoms of schizophrenia may be due to a dysfunctional modulatory system associated with the cerebellum. Although it has long been known that the cerebellum plays a critical role in associative learning and motor timing, recent evidence suggests that it also plays a role in nonmotor psychological processes. Indeed, cerebellar anomalies in schizophrenia have been linked to cognitive dysfunction and poor long-term outcome. To test the hypothesis that schizophrenia is associated with cerebellar dysfunction, cerebellar-dependent, delay eye-blink conditioning was examined in 62 individuals with schizophrenia and 62 age-matched nonpsychiatric comparison subjects. The conditioned stimulus was a 400 ms tone, which co-terminated with a 50 ms unconditioned stimulus air puff. A subset of participants (25 with schizophrenia and 29 controls) also completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Participants with schizophrenia exhibited lower rates of eye-blink conditioning, including earlier (less adaptively timed) conditioned response latencies. Cognitive functioning was correlated with the rate of conditioned responsing in the non-psychiatric comparison subjects but not among those with schizophrenia, and the magnitude of these correlations significantly differed between groups. These findings are consistent with models of schizophrenia in which disruptions within the corticocerebellar-thalamic-cortical (CCTC) brain circuit are postulated to underlie the cognitive fragmentation that characterizes the disorder.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye-blink conditioning deficits indicate temporal processing abnormalities in schizophrenia

Bolbecker

Mehta

Edwards

et al. 2009

Schizophrenia Research

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“…Animal studies have shown that the critical CS‐US association occurs in the anterior interpositus nucleus (63–65), one of the deep cerebellar nuclei. The cortex of the cerebellum is thought to control the expression of CRs and modulate both their timing and amplitude (54, 66, 67). The anterior lobe of the cerebellum seems to be specifically involved in response timing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eyeblink conditioning anomalies in bipolar disorder suggest cerebellar dysfunction

et al. 2009

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Despite the extraordinary personal and societal burden of bipolar disorder (BD), relatively little is known about neural mechanisms associated with the unusual swings and shifts in affective and cognitive function that characterize the disorder. Accumulating evidence suggests that structures (e.g., the cerebellum and basal ganglia) and neurotransmitter systems (e.g., dopamine and glutamate) associated with neural timing processes are abnormal in mood disorders (1-5). The overarching theoretical model under investigation in the present study posits that classic symptoms of BD may arise from poor cerebellar-mediated temporal coordination of networks distributing and integrating cognitive and affective information. Although conventional conceptualizations of the cerebellum have been confined to motor coordination, a growing body of empirical and theoretical evidence indicates that the cerebellum plays a significant role in psychological functions as well, including modulation of perceptual, cognitive, and affective functions (6-12). This evidence is broadening the traditional notion of the cerebellum and illuminating new avenues of research into the mechanisms of psychiatric illness (13, 14). Objectives: Accumulating research implicates the cerebellum in nonmotor psychological processes and psychiatric diseases, including bipolar disorder (BD). Despite recent evidence that cerebellar lesions have been documented to trigger bipolar-like symptoms, few studies have directly examined the functional integrity of the cerebellum in those afflicted with BD.Methods: Using a single-cue delay eyeblink conditioning procedure, the functional integrity of the cerebellum was examined in 28 individuals with BD (9 manic, 8 mixed, and 11 euthymic) and 28 age-matched healthy controls.Results: Analysis of the bipolar group as a whole indicated a conditioned response acquisition and timing deficit compared to controls. However, when the bipolar group was categorized according to mood state (mixed, manic, euthymic), individuals tested during mixed episodes were strikingly impaired, performing significantly worse than all other groups on both the acquisition and timing of conditioned responses.Conclusions: These findings extend prior research implicating cerebellar functional abnormalities in BD and suggest that cerebellar dysfunction may be associated with mood state and course of illness.

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“…Throughout the past century and the beginning of the present one, classical and instrumental conditioning became essential tools for the study of how organisms learn about their environment, as well as to understand some of the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie it. 1 In classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning, animals learn about events that occur in their environment. For example, in Pavlovian fear conditioning, rats might learn that the presentation of an auditory cue (e.g., a tone) predicts the occurrence of an aversive stimulus, such as a mild foot shock.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context change and associative learning

Rosas

Todd

Bouton

2013

WIRES Cognitive Science

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The present article reviews the effects of changing the background context on performance in associative learning tasks in humans and animals. The findings are complementary and consistent over animal conditioning (Pavlovian and instrumental learning) and human predictive learning and memory paradigms. In many cases, a context change after learning can have surprisingly little disruptive influence on performance. Extinction, or retroactive interference treatments more generally, are more context-specific than the initial learning. Contexts become important if the participant is exposed to any of several treatments that involve prediction error, which may serve to increase attention to the context. Contexts also become important if they are given predictive or informational value. Studies of instrumental (operant) learning are further consistent with the idea that the context might also influence affordances that support voluntary actions. Context switch effects are not universal, but mainly occur when certain attention and perception processes can come into play.The present article provides a brief review of the role of context that has emerged in recent studies of associative learning. "Associative learning" is a term that is broadly used to refer to a range of learning phenomena that are studied in humans and other animals. Throughout the past century and the beginning of the present one, classical and instrumental conditioning became essential tools for the study of how organisms learn about their environment, as well as to understand some of the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie it 1 . In classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning, animals learn about events that occur in their environment. For example, in Pavlovian fear conditioning, rats might learn that the presentation of an auditory cue (e.g., a tone) predicts the occurrence of an aversive stimulus, such as a mild foot shock. In instrumental (or operant) conditioning, the rat's own behavior produces the reinforcer. For example, rats might be trained to press a lever to obtain a food pellet reinforcer. As we will illustrate in this paper, similar procedures have recently been used in the human experimental psychology laboratory to study human predictive, diagnostic, and instrumental learning 2, 3, 4 . Associative learning can also be used as a tool to understand how memory works in both human and nonhuman animals. Traditional list learning has been complemented by learning about the correlation between cues or responses and outcomes, akin to nonhuman animal classical and instrumental conditioning 5 . Most of the research has uncovered striking similarities between basic learning processes in human and nonhuman animals (for instance, compare 6 with 7 ).One insight about associative learning is that it never takes place in a vacuum--it always takes place in the presence of background stimuli or contextual cues. A goal of many studies of human and nonhuman associative learning has therefore been to understand what role, ifCorrespondence concerning...

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Biological Models of Associative Learning

Cited by 7 publications

References 330 publications

Eye-blink conditioning deficits indicate temporal processing abnormalities in schizophrenia

Eye-blink conditioning deficits indicate temporal processing abnormalities in schizophrenia

Eyeblink conditioning anomalies in bipolar disorder suggest cerebellar dysfunction

Context change and associative learning

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