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都强调其目标导向的性质。目标可以是自然发生的事件，也可以是习得的事件。也就是说，学习可以将一个中立的事件转变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，将行为从自然事件的排他性控制中解放出来，或者是适应不良，从而导致吸毒复发等行为。尽管它在有利的和异常的行为中都很重要，但关于激励价值是在什么条件下获得的知识以及这个过程背后的神经机制仍然知之甚少。在同时进行的食欲和厌恶的条件反射过程中，对兴奋性学习和抑制性学习的检查将扩大对获得动机价值的条件的了解。利用即刻早期基因Arc和H1a，单个神经元对食欲和厌恶事件的不同处理将被提供。这一应用中提供的行为和神经精度的结合将导致对神经回路的更好理解，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.