Dissertation
The role of the hippocampus and matrix metaloproteinases on habituation of the head-shake response task/classical conditioning paradigm
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
12/2008
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005908
Abstract
These experiments were designed to find evidence regarding the relationship between the hippocampus and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) during the head-shake response (HSR) task/classical conditioning paradigm. Habituation is the simplest form of learning, where an organism's response is decreased due to a repeated presentation of a harmless stimulus. The HSR task has been very predictable in showing habituation to repeated air stimulation to a rat's ear and the spontaneous recovery of the habituated response twenty-four hours later. Since the hippocampus and MMPs are implicated in learning and memory, these experiments investigated their role during a HSR task when a classical conditioning paradigm was added. Therefore these studies were designed to investigate the following: 1) Can a tone serve as the conditioned stimulus (CS) during the HSR task? 2) Is the dorsal hippocampus important during the HSR/Classical conditioning paradigm? 3) Are hippocampal MMPs important during the CS-US (unconditioned stimulus) association? 4) Is hippocampal MMP-3 important during the CS-US association? Findings revealed: 1) the tone presented 1-s prior to the US became a CS. 2) Dorsal hippocampectomized animals were not able to make the CS-US association. 3) Injections of FN-439, a general MMP inhibitor, into the dorsal hippocampus interfered with the CS-US association. 4) Dorsal hippocampus injections of MMP-3 inhibitor also interfered with the CS-US association. Therefore, animals which were not able to form the CS-US association showed similar rates of responding twenty-four hours later. Based on the collective findings of these experiments it is evident that during a HSR/classical conditioning paradigm, the hippocampus plays an important role in consolidating and storing the CS-US association. More specifically dorsal hippocampus MMP-3 was found to be particularly important in the formation of the CS-US association.
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Details
- Title
- The role of the hippocampus and matrix metaloproteinases on habituation of the head-shake response task/classical conditioning paradigm
- Creators
- Roberta V. Wiediger
- Contributors
- John W. Wright (Chair)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Psychology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 80
- Identifiers
- 99901055135601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation