Behavioural brain research
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The neural mechanisms of emotion and memory have long been thought to reside side by side, if not in overlapping structures, of the limbic system. However, the limbic system concept is no longer acceptable as an account of the neural basis of memory or emotion and is being replaced with specific circuit accounts of specific emotional and memory processes. Emotional memory, a special category of memory involving the implicit (probably unconscious) learning and storage of information about the emotional significance of events, is modeled in rodent experiments using aversive classical conditioning techniques. ⋯ The thalamo-amygdala pathway also exhibits long-term potentiation, a form of synaptic plasticity that might underlie the emotional learning functions of the circuit. The thalamo-amygdala pathway contains and uses the amino acid glutamate in synaptic transmission, suggesting the possibility that an amino-acid mediated form of synaptic plasticity is involved in the emotional learning functions of the pathway. We are thus well on the way to a systems level and a cellular understanding of at least one form of emotional learning and memory.
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Although it was once thought that the corticospinal (pyramidal) tract was the main substrate of voluntary movement, the extent to which it is involved in the control of proximal vs. distal musculature, independent finger movements, and movements characteristic of different species of animals now is unclear. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of pyramidal tract lesions on skilled forelimb use in rats. In addition, cell morphology in motor cortex following lesions was examined. ⋯ The results demonstrate that a number of movements involved in independent limb use are chronically impaired by pyramidal tract lesions in the rat. Nevertheless, significant use of the limb is possible, due perhaps to both the contribution of extrapyramidal motor systems and the influence of the remaining pyramidal system through its extrapyramidal connections. The results not only show that the rat pyramidal tract supports functions very similar to those of primates and thus might provide a good model for some aspects of pyramidal tract dysfunctions, but also they argue that the pyramidal tract is involved in both proximal and distal limb movements.
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In vivo microdialysis with HPLC-ED was used to measure dopamine (DA), 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in the nucleus accumbens of the rat, prior, during, and after 15-min periods of electrical brain stimulation at sites in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that supported intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS). In the first experiment, both ICSS and yoked stimulation of the VTA evoked significant increases in extracellular concentrations of DA, its metabolites, and 5-HIAA. ⋯ Further evidence for this hypothesis came from a second set of data in which changes in extracellular DA levels during the measurement of rate/intensity functions for ICSS were positively correlated. 5-HIAA concentrations also increased during ICSS but these changes were not correlated with either ICSS rate or current intensity, suggesting that changes in serotonin metabolism were unlikely to subserve brain stimulation reward in the VTA. These results add to the growing body of evidence linking changes in extracellular DA in the mesolimbic DA system with both brain stimulation reward and the conditioned and unconditioned rewarding effects of biologically relevant stimuli.
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Knowing that the mystacial vibrissae are an important part of the tactile sensory apparatus of rodents, we investigated the role of the barrel cortex - the endstation of the pathway between whiskerpad and cerebral cortex - in mouse behavior. We tested 15 female adult mice 2 and 10 weeks after both unilateral ablation of the barrel cortex and removal of the vibrissae on the same side in order to assess acute as well as transient effects of the cortical lesion. Two kinds of behavioral tests were performed on animals permanently provided with opaque lenses: one involved a passive stimulation of the vibrissae; the other was the 'gap-crossing' test which required the animal's active use of the vibrissae. ⋯ The results show that in mice, the barrel cortex is involved in the performance of complex behavioral tasks. The recovery of function could be due to changes in strategies to solve the gap-crossing test and/or to physical changes in neuronal circuitry. In either case, the results are relevant for the interpretation of cortical transplantation models using the whisker-to-barrel pathway.
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Reaching for food by rats, with the limb contralateral to limb area motor cortex damage, was analyzed using end-point scores, videoanalysis, and Eshkol-Wachmann Movement Notation (EWMN). End point results from groups of rats with small, medium, and large lesions showed reaching success and amount of food grasped per reach decreased with increases in lesion size. Videoanalysis and EWMN showed that the impairments were attributable to: (1) an inability to pronate the paw over the food by abduction of the upper arm, and (2) an inability to supinate the paw at the wrist to orient the food to the mouth. ⋯ There were only mild impairments in lifting, aiming, and advancing the limb. In rats with medium and large lesions, loss of pronation and supination were compensated for by a variety of whole body movements. These findings are discussed in reference to neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying recovery of function and the contribution of the motor cortex to skilled movements in the rat and other species.