Neural structures involved in sensory-specific associations in flavor preference conditioning
Item
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Title
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Neural structures involved in sensory-specific associations in flavor preference conditioning
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:a6ad4df95114:10671
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identifier
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10785
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Creator
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Scarlet, Janina L.,
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Contributor
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Andrew R. Delamater
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Experimental psychology | Behavioral psychology | Physiological psychology | amygdala | gustatory cortex | learning | orbitofrontal cortex | rats | sensory-specific
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Abstract
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This dissertation research examined the roles of the basolateral amygdala (BLA), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and gustatory cortex (GC) in the formation of sensory-specific associations in conditioned flavor preference and conditioned magazine approach paradigms using US devaluation and selective Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) procedures. Experiment 1 analyzed the effects of pre-training BLA and OFC lesions on the formation of sensory-specific flavor-nutrient associations in a US devaluation task, where flavor cues were paired either simultaneously or sequentially with nutrient rewards. Experiment 2 explored the effects of pre-training BLA and OFC lesions on the development of sensory-specific associations in a magazine approach paradigm where auditory and visual cues were used to predict the occurrence of the same nutrients as the ones used in Experiment 1. In this experiment selective PIT and US devaluation tasks were both used to assess the formation of sensory-specific associations. In Experiment 3 we examined the effects of pre-training lesions of the GC and BLA|GC disconnection lesions on the formation of sensory-specific flavor-nutrient associations in a conditioned flavor preference paradigm. The results indicate that while none of these lesions impaired the formation of sensory-specific associations in a flavor preference paradigm as revealed by normal US devaluation effects in lesioned animals, both BLA and OFC lesions impaired the formation of such associations in the conditioned magazine approach paradigm as revealed by a loss of selective PIT in lesioned animals. In addition, the results of Experiment 2 also demonstrated that OFC, but not BLA, lesions abolished the US devaluation effect. These findings suggest that OFC lesions more completely prevent acquisition of sensory-specific associations than BLA lesions in magazine approach conditioning. In Experiment 3 it was found that both GC and GC|BLA disconnection lesions failed to impair the formation of sensory-specific flavor-nutrient associations as revealed by a normal US devaluation effect, but these lesions did result in (1) impaired learning of a discrimination between the devalued and nondevalued nutrients, and (2) impaired extinction of sensory-specific flavor-nutrient associations as revealed by a more long lasting US devaluation effect than was seen in non-lesioned controls. The overall patterns of these results allow for multiple interpretations of the neural processes involved in the formation of sensory-specific associations in various Pavlovian paradigms.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
