Vertical Jumping and Signaled Avoidance

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment intended to demonstrate that the vertical jumping response can be learned using a signaled-avoidance technique. A photoelectric cell system was used to record the response. Twenty female rats, divided equally into two groups, were exposed to intertrial intervals of either 15 or 40 s. Subjects had to achieve three successive criteria of acquisition: 3, 5, and 10 consecutive avoidance responses. Results showed that both groups learned the avoidance response, requiring increasingly larger numbers of trials as the acquisition criteria increased. No significant effect of intertrial interval was observed.

Intra-amygdala ZIP injections impair the memory of learned active avoidance responses and attenuate conditioned taste-aversion acquisition in rats

“…Additionally, the effect of ZIP infusion before drinking and 24 h after training was assessed. In a second experiment we explored the effect of bilateral ZIP injections into the BLA on the retention of a learned active avoidance response without navigational requirements, consisting of a vertical jump on hearing a tone in order to avoid a shock (Cándido et al 1988(Cándido et al , 1991(Cándido et al , 2004Manrique et al 2005 (Paxinos and Watson 1998), each rat was deeply anesthetized with acepromacine (1-2 mg/kg) and a ketamine and clobutol mixture (IMALGENE) (150 mg/kg) before undergoing stereotaxic surgery. The 10-mm-long cannulae were inserted bilaterally 4 mm below the skull and fixed with acrylate.…”

“…They were assigned to two groups counterbalancing both morning or afternoon sessions and the previous treatment with SCR or ZIP: ZIP (n ¼ 13) and Scram (n ¼ 10). The learning procedure followed was similar to that described in detail elsewhere (Cándido et al 1988(Cándido et al , 1991(Cándido et al , 2004Manrique et al 2005). In brief, the animals learned to jump upon hearing an 80-dB SPL/1000 Hz warning tone (CS) in order to avoid a 0.8-mA footshock (US) delivered by a LETICA LI 2700 shock-source module.…”

Early learning failure impairs adult learning in rats

“…The subjects were randomly assigned to morning or afternoon session and counter-balanced by sex and group. The learning procedure followed was that described in detail by Cándido, Maldonado, and Vila (1988).…”