Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience: Learning and Sleep

Flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on behavioral neuroscience, focusing on learning and sleep.

What does learning refer to in behavioral neuroscience?

Learning refers to the process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behavior.

What are the four basic forms of learning?

Perceptual learning, stimulus–response learning, motor learning, and relational learning.

What is perceptual learning?

is learning to recognize a particular stimulus that has been perceived before.

What does stimulus-response learning involve?

It involves learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus and includes classical and instrumental conditioning.

What is classical conditioning?

is a learning procedure where a neutral stimulus is followed by an unconditioned stimulus, leading to the neutral stimulus evoking a conditioned response.

Define extinction in the context of classical conditioning.

It is the reduction and elimination of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus.

What is spontaneous recovery?

Spontaneous recovery is the reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a delay.

What is the Hebb rule?

If a synapse repeatedly becomes active at around the same time that the postsynaptic neuron fires, changes will occur that strengthen the synapse.

What roles do NMDA receptors play in synaptic plasticity?

They are involved in long-term potentiation and are ligand and voltage-dependent ion channels that control calcium entry into neurons.

What is anterograde amnesia?

is the inability to remember events that occur after a disturbance to the brain.

What is retrograde amnesia?

is amnesia for event that preceded some disturbance to the brain

What is the role of the hippocampus in memory?

It is involved with converting immediate memories into long-term memories.

What are the two types of declarative memories?

Episodic memory, which involves context, and semantic memory, which involves facts without context.

What are some effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive abilities?

Sleep deprivation can lead to perceptual distortions, hallucinations, and trouble concentrating.

What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)?

The SCN is located in the hypothalamus and is responsible for organizing the body's circadian rhythms.

How do adenosine levels influence sleep?

Adenosine accumulates during wakefulness and promotes sleep by inhibiting neural activity.

Describe the role of orexin in sleep regulation.

Orexinergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus stabilize wakefulness and prevent narcolepsy.

What is the primary function of slow-wave sleep?

The primary function of slow-wave sleep is to permit the brain to rest.

What is the relationship between REM sleep and memory consolidation?

REM sleep aids in the consolidation of long-term memories and is especially important for nondeclarative memory.

Learning

Refers to the process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behavior.

Motor learning

Learning how to make a new response

Relational learning

Learning the relationship ps amount individual stimuli

Primary function of perceptual learning

the main function is to indemnify and categorize objects and situations

Stimulus-response learning

establishes connections between circuits involved in perception and those involved in movement

Two major categories of learning

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning

Classical conditioning

When a neutral stimulus that initially produces no particular response in followed several times by an unconditional stimulus that produces a defensive or appetitive response; then a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus) evokes a response (conditioned response)

Acquisition

Is the phase during which a CR is established

Extinction

Is the reduction and elimination of the CR after the CS is presented repeatedly without the UCS and occurs when a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and disappears

Spontaneous recovery

Reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a delay/period of rest and with no further conditioning

Stimulus generalization

When similar CSs elicit a CR

Stimulus Discrimination

Occurs if two stimuli are sufficiently distinct from each other that one evokes a CR but the other does not

Instrumental conditioning

Learning procedure whereby effects of particular behavior in a particular situation increase or decrease the probability of the behavior

Increase = reinforce

Decrease = punish

Reinforcing stimulus

appetitive stimulus that follow particular behavior and makes behavior become more frequent

Punishment stimulus

Aversive stimulus that follows particular behavior and makes behavior become less frequent

The pattern of instrumental conditioning

Stimulus → perceptual system → motor system → behavior → reinforcing stimulus → reinforcement system

repeats at motor system

The pattern of perceptual, S-R, and motor learning

Stimulus → perceptual learning → motor learning → response

Synaptic plasticity

Changes in the structure or biochemistry of synapses that alter their effects on postsynaptic neurons

Long-term potentiation

long term increase in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by repeated high frequency activity of that input

NMDA receptor

Specialized ionotropic glutamate receptors that controls calcium channel that is normally blocked by Mg2+ ions and is involved in long-term potentiation

Ligand and voltage-dependent ion channel

How does entry of calcium ions into the dendritic spine cause AMPA receptors to move?

CaM-KII which is a calcium dependent enzyme

3 types of LTP

LTP1- immediate changes in synaptic strength by insertion of AMPA receptors

LTP2- local protein synthesis

LTP3- most durable kind; produces RNA molecule in the nucleus that are then transported to the dendrites where protein synthesis occurs

When the terminal buttons are activated what is released?

Glutamate

Glutamate binds to __________ in the postsynaptic membrane of the dendritic spine

NMDA receptor

If the membrane was depolarized by a ________ ________, then the Mg ion is removed and Ca will enter thought a channel

Dendritic spike

The _______ will activate CaM-KII, which causes the insertion of _______ receptors into the tips of the dendritic spines

Ca; AMPA

________ also initiates rapid changes in synaptic structure and the production of new synapses

LTP

Long lasting ______ causes local and remote synthesis if new proteins that stabilize the changes made in the structure is the synapse

LTP2 AND LTP3

If the ventral stream is effected what happens?

can’t discriminate between items

Reinforcement

Learning provides a means for people to profit from experience to make responses that provide favorable outcomes/ when good things happen

Neural circuits involved in reinforcement

ventral regimental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens,

Nucleus accumbens

Receives dopamine secreting terminal buttons from neurons of VTA and is involved in reinforcement and attention

Dopaminergic neurons being in _____ and project to amygdala, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens

VTA

_______ project to the ventral part of the basal ganglia

Caudate, putamen, globes pallidus

NAC

________________ also plays a role in reinforcement and projects from VTA to the prefrontal cortex as well as the hippocampus

Mesocortical system

Reinforcement must provide 2 functions:

Detect the presence of a reinforcing stimulus and strengthen the connections between the neurons that detect the discriminative stimulus and produces an instrumental response

Gariano and groves

Terminal buttons of axons connecting these two areas (prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area fire in bursting patterns and increase dopamine secretion in the nucleus accumbens

Rational learning

The establishment and retrieval of memories of events, episodes, and places

Three conclusions of anterograde amnesia (scoville and Milner)

• the hippocampus is not the location of long-term memories

• The hippocampus is not the location of immediate memories

• The hippocampus is involved with converting immediate memories into long-term memories

Spatial memory

Unable to consolidate information about locations of rooms, corridors, buildings, and roads

• bilateral medial temporal lobe lesions produces profound impairment in spatial memory (right hemisphere)

Alpha activity

Smooth electrical activity of 8-12 Hz

• state of relaxation

Beta activity

Irregular electrical activity of 13-30 Hz

• state of arousal

REM sleep waves

• theta

• Beta

• Alpha

Stage 1

Occurs intermittently and firing becomes more synchronized

• Theta waves

Stage 2

• irregular brain waves, periods of theta activty

• Sleep spindles and K complexes

Sleep spindles

Short bursts of waves that occur 2-5 times a minute during stage 1-4

K complexes

Sudden, sharp waveforms that are usually found in stage 2; happened one a minutes but can be triggered by noises

Stage 3

15 minutes later

• delta activity- high amplitudes and slower

• 20%-50% delta waves

• Slow wave sleep

Stage 5

90 minutes after

45 minutes after onset of stage 4

• desynchronized brain waves with some theta waves

• Rapid eye movement back and forth

• Responds to name not noises

Stage 4

• no clear distinction between this stage and stage 3

• More than 50% delta waves

• Slow wave sleep

Theta activty

EEG activity of 3.5-7.5 Hz that happened intermittently during slow wave and REM sleep

Delta activty

Regular, synchronous electrical activity of less than 4 Hz and happens in deepest stages of slow wave sleep

Slow wave sleep

Non-REM sleep, Charla tired by synchronized EEG activity in its deeper stages

REM sleep

Period of desynchronized EEG activity during sleep, dreaming, rapid eye movements, and muscle paralysis occurs

Adenosine

Neuromodulator that is released by neurons engaging in high levels of metabolic activity, may play primary role in initiation of sleep

During brain activity, glycogen is converted to fuel for neurons, so prolonged wakefulness will result in decreases in glycogen levels

Decreases in glycogen levels results in an increase in adenosine, which has an inhibitory effect on neural activity

is a sleep promoting substance which allows the brain to rest and glycogen levels to be restored

Acetylcholine

Is mostly located in the pons

Norepinephrine

Located in the inclocus corelus and is responsible for energy and vigilance

Serotonin

Located in the raphi nuclei

Histamine

Located in the hypothalamus and helps keep you awake

• responsible for wakefulness and arousal

• Activity is high during waking but low during slow wave and REM sleep

Orexin

Located in the hypothalamus and is responsible for alertness and is a stabilizer; it is not present the whole time when you are awake

Circadian rhythms

Are changes in both behavior an physiological processes that are found in both the plant and Amina’s word

Zeitgeber

A stimulus that resets the biological clock that is responsible for biological rhythms

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

Located in the hypothalamus and contain the biological clock