Parsimonious biological models of memory and reinforcement.

Pfaff, Donald W.

doi:10.1037/h0026742

Cited by 24 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…That is to say, in each case the click may be what the subject is "waiting for" but exultation, if it were objectively studied, would underscore the fact that it is the receipt of reward predictors it-like the taste of the apple itself-is only a predictor of the reinforcer, the event that stamps in memory (Lan-that arouse us most. In the human situation, it is such things as the receipt of money, the receipt of the promise dauer, 1969; Pfaff, 1969;Huston et al, 1974;Messier and White, 1984). of an assignation, or the receipt of an invitation to compete in the finals of an athletic tournament that elicits the explosive "Yes!"…”

Section: Reward Receipt and Reward Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain Reward Circuitry

Wise

2002

Neuron

771

185

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The natural incentives that shape behavior reach the central circuitry of motivation trans-synaptically, via the five senses, whereas the laboratory rewards of intracranial stimulation or drug injections activate reward circuitry directly, bypassing peripheral sensory pathways. The unsensed incentives of brain stimulation and intracranial drug injections thus give us tools to identify reward circuit elements within the associational portions of the CNS. Such studies have implicated the mesolimbic dopamine system and several of its afferents and efferents in motivational function. Comparisons of natural and laboratory incentives suggest hypotheses as to why some habits become compulsive and give insights into the roles of reinforcement and of prediction of reinforcement in habit formation.

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Section: Reward Receipt and Reward Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain Reward Circuitry

Wise

2002

Neuron

771

185

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“…In 1969 Pfaff [27] suggested that that memory of an event consists of long-lasting metabolic adaptations in neurones and that memories would be strongest when this electrical activity (or inactivity) is prolonged and exaggerated, since the metabolic adaptations would then be more pronounced. A simple mechanism of reinforcement would be one in which a part of the brain which responds to the presentation of behavioural reinforcers causes the release of an activating substance into the blood stream.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Astrocytes and Interneurons in Memory Processing in the Chick Hippocampus: Roles for G-Coupled Protein Receptors, GABA(B) and mGluR1

Gibbs

Bowser

2009

Neurochem Res

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Glutamate and GABA acting at mGluR1 and GABA(B) receptors, respectively, have roles in memory processing in the hippocampus up to 35 min after bead discrimination learning in the young chick. Activation of mGluR1 receptors is important at 2.5 and 30 min after training, but modulation of these receptors between these two times has no effect on memory. This timing is similar to the action of glutamate on NMDA receptors. The GABA(B) antagonist, phaclofen, and the inhibitor of astrocytic oxidative metabolism, fluoroacetate, inhibited memory when injected between 2.5 and 30 min. Paradoxically, a high dose of the GABA(B) agonist, baclofen, also inhibited memory, but a low dose promoted memory consolidation--an effect possibly caused by too much information and loss of the 'message'. These results are interpreted in terms interactions between interneurons, astrocytes and pyramidal cells and demonstrate the importance of all cell types in memory processing in the hippocampus.

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“…Formal theories of reinforcement stress the enhancement of memory consolidation as the essence of the mechanism for stamping in memory (8,13). It is known that glucose given subcutaneously following a learning trial can improve retention of what was learned in the trial.…”

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confidence: 99%

The parsing of food reward

Wise¹

2006

American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comp

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WHAT IS IT THAT IS habit-forming about food? Sweet foods and fatty foods are habit-forming and sweet-fatty foods perhaps more than doubly so. Many kitchen and industrial experiments have gone into the determination of the amounts of sugar and butter to optimize the palatability of a given meal or substance. But humans also seek out bitter and tart substances. Cattle seek out and ingest alfalfa, which is indigestible and, interestingly, not very tasty for monogastric animals, such as humans or pigs. What is really known about the elements of orosensory rewards? We know the sweeter the better but that sour, salt, and bitter tastes are accepted only at low concentration and rejected at high concentration (14). What about foodstuffs that are not identified by the four tastes or, as in the case of corn oil, even by olfaction (17)? New data of Liang et al. (9) suggest an answer to this important question.Because flavorless water is rewarding for thirsty animals, the identification of the rewarding quality of fluids offers an easier case and an instructive example. It is the oral cooling that accompanies ingested water that makes it rewarding. As is well known from personal experience, cool water is preferred to warm (4, 15). Attribution of reward to this sensory property rather than to postingestional effects of rehydration, however, like attribution of sucrose reward to sweetness (5) rather than to the effects of sugars on memory consolidation (12), requires more than correlative data. The critical test involves dissociation of the orosensory and postingestional properties of the tastant. In the case of hydrational rewards, several studies confirm that oral cooling, even without consequent hydration, is the rewarding consequence of drinking. Water-deprived (but not sated) rodents will persistently lick a cool airstream (despite the fact that it further dehydrates the animal by evaporating the animal's saliva) and this air licking will reduce subsequent drinking of and working for real water (3, 6). Thirsty rats will even lick an airstream that is warm, so long as the warm air is dry and will cool the oral cavity by evaporating saliva (3). Thus oral cooling is the immediate reward for drinking in thirsty rats (10, 11).A more direct way to separate the orosensory and postingestional effects of ingested rewards is to disconnect the oral cavity from the digestive cavity. The simplest approximation of disconnection involves a gastric fistula that can be opened to allow an ingested tastant to flow out of the stomach without significant absorption. Using this method, Hajnal et al. (5) have confirmed a conclusion reached decades earlier from studies of nonnutritive sweeteners (16); sweetness itself is a reinforcer, independent of the postingestive ability of sugars to enhance memory consolidation (12).The mechanism by which nonnutritive sweeteners (or sugar solutions that are allowed to drain through a gastric fistula) can reinforce learning and establish response habits is not really understood. Formal theories of reinforce...

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Parsimonious biological models of memory and reinforcement.

Cited by 24 publications

References 75 publications

Brain Reward Circuitry

Brain Reward Circuitry

Astrocytes and Interneurons in Memory Processing in the Chick Hippocampus: Roles for G-Coupled Protein Receptors, GABA(B) and mGluR1

The parsing of food reward

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