We have located links that may give you full text access.
Transient inactivation of the visual-associative nidopallium frontolaterale (NFL) impairs extinction learning and context encoding in pigeons.
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 2019 January 19
Extinction learning is a fundamental learning process that enables organisms to continuously update knowledge about their ever-changing environment. When using visual cues as conditioned stimuli (CS), visual cortical areas of mammals are known to participate in extinction learning. The aim of the present study was to test whether similar processes can also be observed in birds. With pigeons as an animal model, we therefore investigated the role of the nidopallium frontolaterale (NFL), a key avian visual associative area, in an extinction learning task. We adopted a within-subject extinction task design with context manipulation, and tested the animals for extinction memory retention and renewal. Before extinction, the NFL was transiently inactivated by intracerebral tetrodotoxin (TTX) injections. Our data suggest that inactivation of NFL indeed produces a slowing of extinction learning. Importantly, NFL also plays a key role in context encoding, as indicated by an abolishment of the renewal effect. This is not due to an overall perceptual decrement, since the ability to distinguish between the different visual stimuli was unaltered, but might be caused by an impaired formation of the context-CS-configuration during extinction. Taken together, our experiment not only reveals similarities of neural substrates of extinction learning in birds and mammals, but also provides strong evidence for a specific contribution of the NFL in context encoding.
Full text links
Related Resources
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app
All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.
By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Your Privacy Choices
You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app