Motivational valence alters memory formation without altering exploration of a real-life spatial environment.

ABSTRACT: Volitional exploration and learning are key to adaptive behavior, yet their characterization remains a complex problem for cognitive science. Exploration has been posited as a mechanism by which motivation promotes memory, but this relationship is not well-understood, in part because novel stimuli that motivate exploration also reliably elicit changes in neuromodulatory brain systems that directly alter memory formation, via effects on neural plasticity. To deconfound interrelationships between motivation, exploration, and memory formation we manipulated motivational state prior to entering a spatial context, measured exploratory responses to the context and novel stimuli within it, and then examined motivation and exploration as predictors of memory outcomes. To elicit spontaneous explora

SUBMITTER: Chiew KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5860699 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature