Joynes R L, Illich P A, Grau J W
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843, USA.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 1997 Jan;67(1):64-8. doi: 10.1006/nlme.1996.3736.
Prior work suggests that spinal systems are sensitive to the stimulus relationships that underlie Pavlovian conditioning. We studied this phenomenon in Sprague-Dawley rats by pairing a vibrotactile conditioned stimulus (CS) with a tailshock unconditioned stimulus (US). Experiment 1 showed that spinal rats exhibit differential conditioning, having longer tail-flick latencies on the tail-flick test during a CS that was paired with the US (conditioned antinociception). Experiment 2 showed that rats trained with the cord intact still exhibit differential conditioning after the cord is cut. This suggests that spinal learning contributes to behavioral plasticity in intact subjects.
