Laboratoire Mouvement, Adaptation, Cognition, Université Bordeaux 2, 146 rue Léo Saignat, Bordeaux, France.
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2011 Mar;68(5):803-16. doi: 10.1007/s00018-010-0570-9. Epub 2010 Nov 2.
Associative learning in goal-directed behaviors, in contrast to reflexive behaviors, can alter processes of decision-making in the selection of appropriate action and its initiation, thereby enabling animals, including humans, to gain a predictive understanding of their external environment. In the mollusc Aplysia, recent studies on appetitive operant conditioning in which the animal learns about the positive consequences of its behavior have provided insights into this form of associative learning which, although ubiquitous, remains mechanistically poorly understood. The findings support increasing evidence that central circuit- and cell-wide sites other than chemical synaptic connections, including electrical coupling and membrane conductances controlling intrinsic neuronal excitability and underlying voltage-dependent plateauing or oscillatory mechanisms, may serve as the neural substrates for behavioral plasticity resulting from operant conditioning. Aplysia therefore continues to provide a model system for understanding learning and memory formation that enables establishing the neurobiological links between behavioral, network, and cellular levels of analysis.
在有目的的行为中的联想学习，与反射行为相反，可以改变决策过程，从而选择适当的行动及其启动，使包括人类在内的动物能够对其外部环境获得预测性的理解。在软体动物海兔中，最近关于食欲操作性条件反射的研究表明，动物可以了解其行为的积极后果，这为这种联想学习形式提供了深入的了解。尽管联想学习无处不在，但它的机制仍然知之甚少。这些发现支持越来越多的证据表明，中枢电路和细胞范围的位点，除了化学突触连接之外，包括电耦合和控制内在神经元兴奋性的膜电导以及潜在的电压依赖性平台或振荡机制，可能作为行为可塑性的神经基质，这种可塑性是由操作性条件反射引起的。因此，海兔继续为理解学习和记忆形成提供了一个模型系统，使人们能够在行为、网络和细胞分析水平之间建立神经生物学联系。
