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EYEBLINK CONDITIONING IN THE DEVELOPING RAT
Citation:
Stanton, M., J. Freeman, Jr., AND R. Skelton. EYEBLINK CONDITIONING IN THE DEVELOPING RAT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-92/336 (NTIS PB92232982).
Description:
Long-Evans rat pups, 17-18 or 24 days of age, wore trained with an eyeblink conditioning (EBC) procedure that has recently been used with adult rats (Skelton, 1988, Beh, Neurosci., 102, 586-590). ups received 3 sessions of delay conditioning in a single day, at about 4 hour intervals (100 trials/session). rials involved pairings of an auditory conditioned stimulus (2.8 KHZ, 82 dB tone), and a periocular-shock unconditioned stimulus (US, 100msec, 2 mA), presented 28O-msec apart. BC was observed at both ages, but older pups learned much more rapidly. ubsequent experiments established that this effect is associative (Experiment 2), that age differences in EBC cannot be attributed to differences in the ability to respond or in sensitivity to the US (Experiment 3); and that EBC can be modulated by motivational state (Experiment 4). hese results indicate that EBC can be studied in the developing rat. urther use of this preparation could help elucidate the relation between neural development and the ontogeny of learning.