Stimulus-specific adaptation to behaviorally-relevant sounds in awake rats.

ABSTRACT: Stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) is the reduction in responses to a common stimulus that does not generalize, or only partially generalizes, to other stimuli. SSA has been studied mainly with sounds that bear no behavioral meaning. We hypothesized that the acquisition of behavioral meaning by a sound should modify the amount of SSA evoked by that sound. To test this hypothesis, we used fear conditioning in rats, using two word-like stimuli, derived from the English words "danger" and "safety", as well as pure tones. One stimulus (CS+) was associated with a foot shock whereas the other stimulus (CS-) was presented without a concomitant foot shock. We recorded neural responses to the auditory stimuli telemetrically, using chronically implanted multi-electrode arrays in freely moving animal

SUBMITTER: Yaron A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7094827 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature