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Models of learning and memory

13 important questions on Models of learning and memory

Explain contextual fear conditioning

Put the rat in the box and give them foot shocks (3-5). The freezing is a measure of memory, the more they freeze the better the memory. You can also measure extinction when you put them in the box after a few days.

Of which brain region is contextual fear conditioning mainly dependent?

Explain auditory fear conditioning

You present the rats with a tone and a shock (3-5). Later you present the tone with something else (for example a certain smell).

Explain inhibitory avoidance/passive avoidance

You put the rat in a box on a white surface. They don’t like that and want to go to the dark part, but they get one foot shock there. So, you measure retention as entrance latency.

Explain ative shock avoidance

The rats hear a tone and then get a shock. But they can escape to the other side of the box. So, when they hear the tone they need to go to the other side. Several days of training are needed, because it is hard for the rat to learn that both sides are safe and unsafe.

Explain conditioned taste aversion + appetitive taste learning and indicate which brain region is investigated with this.

You let them drink a novel solution and after that inject a drug that gives them stomach pain. The next time they will not drink that solution. One trial is efficient.The injection can be half an hour later, that doesn’t matter. But that is also the case with food poisoning. It is investigated in relation to the insular cortex.

Explain spatial water maze. Dependent on which brain region?

Takes a few days of training. They need to find an invisible water platform. It is hippocampus dependent. You measure the time it takes for the animal to find the platform.

Explain the cued water maze. Dependent on which brain region?

Now they can see the platform. They don’t need cues in the room to find the platform. Dependent on the striatum and caudate nucleus (procedural, habit memory). Works well as a control for spatial water maze.

Which two types of memory do you need for the radial arm maze?

Reference memory: remember the arms where there is never food
Working memory: they should not investigate the same arm twice.

What does the Tolman maze test?

Whether the rats use spatial or response strategy for finding food in a T-maze.

Which two things can the object recognition task test for? Why does it very much resemble the real world?

A new item in the box (perirhinal and insular cortex) or the same item moved (HC). Because the animal is not stressed, and it is something they come across in their daily life.

What is the objext-in-context task? What does it test for?

The animal learns in what context certain objects are and if you put them in a context with an item from another context, they will spend more time with this item. This one comes close to testing for episodic and declarative memory.

Explain the Y maze activity test for spontaneous alternation.

Rats are curious and will visit every arm. But the question is whether they remember in which arm they were already in. So you measure the time spent in every arm. This is working memory.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

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Models of learning and memory

13 important questions on Models of learning and memory

Explain contextual fear conditioning

Of which brain region is contextual fear conditioning mainly dependent?

Explain auditory fear conditioning

Explain inhibitory avoidance/passive avoidance

Explain ative shock avoidance

Explain conditioned taste aversion + appetitive taste learning and indicate which brain region is investigated with this.

Explain spatial water maze. Dependent on which brain region?

Explain the cued water maze. Dependent on which brain region?

Which two types of memory do you need for the radial arm maze?

What does the Tolman maze test?

Which two things can the object recognition task test for? Why does it very much resemble the real world?

What is the objext-in-context task? What does it test for?

Explain the Y maze activity test for spontaneous alternation.

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