LeDoux Lab 2012 SfN Abstracts
 
Program#/Poster#: 603.09/EEE12
Title: Factors influencing aversive Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in a rodent Sidman avoidance paradigm
Location: Hall F-J
Presentation Time: Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Authors: *V. CAMPESE1, J. E. LEDOUX1,2, C. K. CAIN1,2;
1Ctr. For Neural Sci., New York Univ., New York, NY; 2Emotional Brain Inst. at the Nathan S. Kline Inst. for Psychiatric Res., Orangeburg, NY
Abstract: Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) demonstrates the ability of classically conditioned stimuli (CS) to modulate instrumental responding, either through specific or general processes (Corbit & Balleine 2005; 2011). PIT has been studied extensively with appetitive conditioning but barely at all with aversive conditioning. Although it’s been argued that conditioned suppression is a form of aversive PIT, this effect is fundamentally different from appetitive PIT because the CS suppresses, instead of facilitates, responding. Thus, we designed a new aversive PIT task in rats where instrumental avoidance responding (Sidman shuttling) is enhanced by an aversive Pavlovian CS. We here report four studies characterizing this novel form of aversive PIT in rats. The first study examined whether or not associative conditioning is necessary for transfer using paired and unpaired treatments during the defensive conditioning phase. Experiment 2 compared PIT when CS testing occurred following 5, 40 or 60 minutes of shuttling extinction and found that PIT was strongest following 40 minutes of extinction. Experiment 3 evaluated PIT under conditions where CS tests were triggered once baseline rates of shuttling reached specified criteria (e.g., 3 rpm vs 1 rpm). Preliminary findings suggest that these testing conditions may produce stronger PIT than simply initiating tests following 40 minutes of extinction. Experiment 4 assessed if PIT magnitude is related to footshock intensity during initial defensive conditioning (e.g., 0.4, 0.7 or 1.0mA). Comparable PIT effects were observed in these groups, suggesting at least at the tested intensities, US magnitude does not influence aversive PIT. Ongoing studies are evaluating the impact of damage to sub-regions of the amygdala on aversively motivated PIT.
Support: NIMH Grant FA0665