Date of Award
2006
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Butt, Allen
Second Advisor
Chien, Yuchin
Third Advisor
Crawford, Cynthia
Abstract
The experiment tested the hypothesis that the acetylcholine (ACh) release in the rat auditory cortex is greater in rats undergoing auditory classical conditioning compared to rats in a truly random control paradigm where no associative learning takes place and that this is mediated by prefrontal afferent projections influencing the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM), which in turn modulates ACh release in neocortex. Rats with bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of medial prefrontal and agranular insular cortices were tested in an auditory classical conditioning task while ACh was collected from the primary auditory cortex. It was hypothesized that lesions of these prefrontal areas would prevent learning-related increases of ACh release in the primary auditory cortex. The hypothesized results were supported. Results from this experiment provide unique evidence that medial prefrontal cortex projections to the NBM are important for mediating cortical ACh release during associative learning.
Recommended Citation
Chavez, Candice Monique, "Top-down modulation by medial prefrontal cortex of basal forebrain activation of auditory cortex during learning" (2006). Theses Digitization Project. 3053.
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3053
