Powell Donald A, Churchwell John
Shirley L. Buchanan Neuroscience Laboratory, Dorn VA Medical Center, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
Learn Mem. 2002 Jan-Feb;9(1):10-7. doi: 10.1101/lm.45302.
Rabbits received lesions of the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (MDN) or sham lesions and were subjected to classical eyeblink (EB) and heart rate (HR) conditioning. All animals received trace conditioning, with a.5-sec tone conditioned stimulus, a .5-sec trace period, and a 50-msec periorbital shock unconditioned stimulus. Animals with MDN lesions acquired the EB conditioned response (CR) more slowly than sham-lesioned animals. However, previous studies have shown that MDN damage does not affect delay conditioning using either .5-sec or 1-sec interstimulus intervals. The lesions had no significant effect on the HR CR. These results suggest that information processed by MDN and relayed to the prefrontal cortex is required for somatomotor response selection under nonoptimal learning conditions.
给兔子的丘脑背内侧核(MDN)造成损伤或进行假损伤,然后对它们进行经典眨眼(EB)和心率(HR)条件反射训练。所有动物都接受痕迹条件反射训练,条件刺激为0.5秒的音调,痕迹期为0.5秒,非条件刺激为50毫秒的眶周电击。与假损伤动物相比,MDN损伤的动物获得EB条件反应(CR)的速度更慢。然而,先前的研究表明,MDN损伤并不影响使用0.5秒或1秒刺激间隔的延迟条件反射。这些损伤对HR CR没有显著影响。这些结果表明,在非最佳学习条件下,MDN处理并传递到前额叶皮层的信息对于躯体运动反应选择是必需的。