Amygdala central nucleus lesions disrupt increments, but not decrements, in conditioned stimulus processing

Behav Neurosci. 1993 Apr;107(2):246-53. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.107.2.246.

Abstract

The effects of neurotoxic lesions of the amygdala central nucleus (CN) on changes in the associability of a conditioned stimulus (CS) in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning were examined in 2 experiments with rats. In Experiment 1, CN lesions had no effect on the reduction in the associability of a CS produced by preexposure to that cue (latent inhibition). In Experiment 2, CN lesions prevented the enhancement of the associability of a CS that is normally observed when an inconsistent predictive relation is arranged between that CS and another cue. The results support previous claims that the amygdala CN is involved in broad-based incremental, but not decremental, changes in the processing of CSs in Pavlovian conditioning.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amygdala / physiology*
  • Animals
  • Appetitive Behavior / physiology*
  • Association Learning / physiology*
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Conditioning, Classical / physiology*
  • Male
  • Mental Recall / physiology*
  • Neural Inhibition / physiology
  • Neurons / physiology
  • Rats