CAUDATE AND HIPPOCAMPAL CONTRIBUTION TO SPATIAL LEARNING

描述（改编自申请人摘要）：相对较新 对基底节区痴呆患者行为缺陷的再评价 功能障碍显示出显著和显著的认知障碍。 这些结果特别令人惊讶，因为有一段时间， 神经节被认为是运动控制系统的延伸。 在试图确定基础的精确认知后果时， 神经节（特别是纹状体）受损，动物研究人员已经将重点放在 基底神经节在大鼠学习记忆中的作用 猴子. 啮齿类动物病变文献表明， 尾状核刺激反应或自我中心的学习形式（分离它 从啮齿动物海马体进行的基于上下文的学习），而 灵长类动物的电生理学证据支持尾状核的双重作用， 刺激-反应和情境依赖性学习。 在这里，我们提出了一个 潜在的解决方案，以应对学习之间的明显差异， 以及尾状核的上下文解释。 我们建议 尾状核提供了一个反应参考系统，以帮助确定的目标， 认为适合当前情况的未来行动 不管要学习的特定任务是否是刺激-反应 或涉及更灵活的处理上下文相关的 学习 在空间学习中，我们认为，虽然海马感觉 语境系统对于动物组织感官是很重要的 信息以不同的方式，尾状核反应指涉系统允许 动物迅速重新定义响应选项作为环境需求 变化，后者可以在许多类型的 行为 区分严格反应理论和反应理论 尾状核的参照理论，尾状核单核的行为相关物 表征为大鼠执行空间背景任务的单位活动， 一个自我中心反应任务，或者一个随机强迫选择任务， 或者T型迷宫 将记录海马区细胞活动 与尾状核活动同时进行，以允许直接分析 这两种结构对不同学习形式的相对贡献。 多巴胺调节学习诱导的单位变化的可能性， 尾状核将通过观察多巴胺神经毒素的影响来测试 单位行为相关性 通过这种方式，我们不仅解决了 尾状核在不同形式的学习中具有作用，而且尾状核如何 可能有助于形成更大的神经回路，使生物体能够 最终在感官解释方面具有最大的灵活性， 应对方案。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Relatively recent re-evaluations of the behavioral deficits of patients with basal ganglia dysfunction have revealed significant and striking cognitive impairments. These results were particularly surprising because for some time, the basal ganglia have been thought of as an extension of the motor control system. In an attempt to determine the precise cognitive consequence of basal ganglia (in particular striatum) compromise, animal researchers have focused on the contribution of the basal ganglia to learning and memory in rat and monkey. The rodent lesion literature suggests a selective role for the caudate stimulus-response or egocentric forms of learning (dissociating it from the context-based learning performed by rodent hippocampus), while the primate electrophysiological evidence supports a dual role for caudate in both stimulus-response and context-dependent learning. Here we present a potential resolution to the apparent discrepancy between response learning and contextual interpretations of the caudate nucleus. We propose that the caudate provides a response reference system to help define the goals of future actions that are deemed appropriate for the current context regardless of whether the specific task to be learned is stimulus-response in nature or involves the more flexible processing of context-dependent learning. In spatial learning, we argue that while the hippocampal sensory context system is important to allow the animal to organize sensory information in different ways, the caudate response referent system allows animals to quickly redefine response options as environmental demands change, the latter of which can play fundamental roles in many types of behavior. To distinguish between a strictly response theory and a response reference theory of caudate, the behavioral correlates of caudate single unit activity characterized as rats perform either a spatial context task, an egocentric response task, or a random forced choice task on a radial maze or a T-maze. Hippocampal place cell activity will be recorded simultaneously with the caudate activity to allow for direct analysis of the relative contributions of the two structures to different forms of learning. The possibility that dopamine regulates the learning-induced unit changes in caudate will be tested by looking at the effects of a dopamine neurotoxin unit-behavioral correlates. In this way, we not only address what unique role caudate has in different forms of learning, but also how the caudate may contribute to a larger neural circuit that allows organisms to ultimately have maximal flexibility in terms of sensory interpretations and response options.