Functional Anatomy of Appetitive & Aversive Conditioning

描述（由申请人提供）：最近对人类和动物行为的描述强调了其目标导向的性质。目标可以是自然发生的或学习的事件。也就是说，学习可以将一个中性事件转化为一个具有激励价值的事件，一个动物会努力获得或避免的事件。这一过程可以是适应性的，使行为摆脱自然事件的排他性控制，也可以是适应不良的，导致诸如吸毒成瘾等行为。尽管动机价值在有利行为和异常行为中都很重要，但人们对获得动机价值的条件以及这一过程背后的神经机制仍然知之甚少。在同时进行的欲望和厌恶条件反射过程中，对兴奋性和抑制性学习的研究将扩展对获得动机价值的条件的认识。将使用即时早期基因Arc和H1a提供单个神经元对食欲和厌恶事件的差异处理。在本申请中提供的行为和神经精度的组合将导致更好地理解神经回路，该神经回路是通过联想学习获得动机价值的基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent descriptions of both human and animal behavior emphasize its goal-directed nature. Goals can be naturally occurring or learned events. That is, learning can transform a neutral event into one with motivational value, an event for which an animal will work to obtain or avoid. This process can be adaptive, freeing behavior from exclusive control by natural events, or maladaptive, leading to behaviors such as relapse in drug seeking. Despite its importance in both advantageous and aberrant behavior, knowledge of the conditions under which motivational value is acquired and the neural mechanisms that underlie this process remain poorly understood. Examination of both excitatory and inhibitory learning in concurrent appetitive and aversive conditioning procedures will extend knowledge of the conditions under which motivational value is acquired. Differential processing of appetitive and aversive events by single neurons will be provided using the immediate early genes Arc and H1a. The combination of behavioral and neural precision provided in this application will result in a better understanding of the neural circuitry that underlies the acquisition of motivational value through associative learning.