NSCI 222 FINAL

Sign or releaser or stimuli

Behaviors in modal action patterns are induced by events called

Learned helplessness

A mental state where the individual experiences hopeless and little control over their life or circumstance, predictor of depression

Seligman's experiment

Dogs stopped responding to shock even when it was escapable, developed learned helplessness affecting mental and physical health

Learned helplessness results in

a passive attitude and avoiding trying

Do Model action patterns in humans?

False, human behavior is too complex

Animal research advantage

Control over learning history

Extinction in classical conditioning

The conditioned stimulus occurs without the unconditioned stimulus

Drug relapse

Conditioned cues for drug taking are presented

LTP location

Hippocampus

Aggression sign stimulus for stickleback fish

the color Red

Taste aversion learning characteristic

The CS US interval can be long

Latent inhibition

The result of the CS having been presented numerous times without the US

Behavior

Anything a person or animal can do that can be measured

Brain activity is...

a form of behavior

Three Rs

Replace reduce, refine

Thoughts

not a measurable behavioral response

Silver fox experiments demonstrate

That genetics can be an important influence on behavior

Conditional strategy

Several phenotypes can develop from a single genotype

Darwin's theory of evolution

Variation and natural selection

Evolution impact on behavior

Behavior must be genetically influenced

Sensory deprivation can cause...

hallucinations

Opponent process theory

Useful in accounting for drug seeking behavior and thrill seeking behavior

Optimal level theory

people prefer stimuli within the optimal range. Too little stimulation = boredom; too much stimulation = stress

Opponent process theory

Repeated exposure results in decreased initial affects (A-process) and stronger compensatory afteraffect (B-process). Taking more of the drug alleviate the strong withdrawal affects even though little euphoric high will be felt.

Misophonia

a disorder in which certain sounds trigger emotional or physiological responses that some might perceive as unreasonable given the circumstanc

Pavlov's stimulus substitution theory

Supported by some neuroscience data. Conditioned response and unconditioned repsonse must be the same (examples: CTA and dog salivation experiment)

Effect of delaying reinforcement on operant learning

It reduces the effectiveness of reinforcement

Not observed on the first trial of classical conditioning

Conditioned response

Optimal level theory

Individuals have an optimal or preferred level of stimulation

Good CS/US contiguity (sequential occurence)

Increases the chances that stimulus will become associated

Acquisition of Pavlovian conditioning shows that...

The rate of learning is less with each trial and tends to plateau

Learning in classical conditioning

Evident when the CS elicits the conditioned response

Presenting a taste before electric shock...

Will likely lead to a weak or no conditioned response

Feature of classical conditioning

The conditioned response may differ from the unconditioned response

Compensatory response theory

Relapse is the result of a compensatory conditioned response

Ader and Cohen experiment

Pairing of a flavored solution cyclophosphamide results in a suppression of immune function

Thorndike's Law of Effect

Behavior changes as a function of the stimulus consequence that follows it

After negative reinforcement

The response rate should increase

Shaping an operant response

The trainer reinforces successive approximations

Autoshaping in pigeons

Provided support for stimulus substitution theory

Spontaneous recovery

An increase in the strength of extinguished response after a period of time following extinction

Conditioning of compensatory responses

Can help explain drug overdose

Punishment effects

Can lead to unwanted effects such as aggression and apathy

Anxiety according to review articles

Involves both Pavlovian and operant learning

Learned helplessness theory

Experience with uncontrollable aversive events results in physiological consequences

Garcia effect experiment

Key factor that led to rats developing a taste aversion was becoming ill after drinking the flavored water

Evolutionary theory

Proposes that natural selection leads to the development of more complex organisms. Law of parsimony = most simple explanation wins

Darwin's theory of evolution states that

species evolve through NON-random adaptive changes.

Breland and Breland findings

Identified that some problems with operant conditioning in animals occurred because of instinctive drift. Instinctive drift - Animals resort to natural behaviors like sign tracking

Pavlovian conditioning effectiveness

More effective when the CS is presented before the US

Negative punishment

Involves the removal of desirable stimulus

Positive punishment

Involves adding an aversive stimulus in response to a behavior (to decrease it)

Therapy type for drug abuse treatment

Increase the understanding of triggers for relapse

Relapse in drug abuse

A common component of drug abuse

FR-5 schedule of reinforcement

Means that 5 responses are required for reinforcement

Example of negative reinforcement

Putting up an umbrella in the rain

Measures of learning

Typically can include rate, topography, fluency, intensity, errors, speed, and latency

Sensory deprivation effects

Can increase hallucinations in anxiety prone people. Sensory deprivation can produce hallucinations in high and low hallucination prone groups

MDMA clinical trials

Has been used to help treat PTSD

An animal model of PTSD

Stress enhanced fear learning

Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning is a theory of …

…Stimulus substitution

Latency to respond as a measure of learning

The time to respond can increase or decrease

Applications of Pavlovian conditioning

Has been applied to fear and anxiety learning, drug use, taste preferences

LTP process according to Gillian

Forming new memories

animal model that makes research easier due to simple nervous system (few and large neurons)

Aplysia Californica (Seas Slugs)

fixed-interval schedule

reward after a SET amount of time (i.e. reinforcement always given on friday)

fixed ratio schedule

reward after a SET number of responses

variable-interval schedule

reward after a CHANGING amount of time

variable-ratio schedule

rewards an unpredictable number of correct responses

Mowerer's two factor theory

fear is conditioned through classical and operant conditioning

Avoidance

reduces fear short-term but prevents new learning that a situation is safe, keeping anxiety alive.

Extinction (exposure without bad outcomes)

helps override fear memories but often people struggle to reduce fear as they avoid exposures or fear memories return later (spontaneous recovery, renewal)

Hernandez Blasi & Mondejar (2018) - Testing the Kundera Hypothesis

Aim: Investigated whether women prioritize their children over their partners more often than men do in life-or-death situations, as suggested by the Kundera hypothesis.

Findings: Both genders preferred saving their child, but men were more likely than women to save their partner (18% vs. 5%). This aligns with inclusive fitness theory, which suggests behaviors evolve to maximize genetic survival. Women, often primary caregivers, demonstrate stronger instinctual survival behaviors favoring offspring.

Class Connection: Supports evolutionary theory and natural selection—behavioral variations (e.g., prioritizing offspring) can be naturally selected if they enhance genetic transmission. Supports Kundera Hypothesis.

Schriver et al. (2019) - Do relatives with greater reproductive potential get help first?:A test of the inclusive fitness explanation of kin altruism.

Aim: Tested whether individuals are more likely to help genetically related relatives, particularly those with high reproductive potential.

Findings: In life-or-death situations, people helped relatives with greater reproductive potential, aligning with inclusive fitness theory—favoring kin who can pass on shared genes.

Class Connection: Reinforces that behaviors, like kin selection, are subject to natural selection and that altruistic behavior can evolve when it enhances genetic survival.

Verbitsky et al. (2020) - Rodent PTSD Models

Aim: Examined rodents' stress responses to various trauma models to study PTSD mechanisms.

Findings: Rodents displayed PTSD-like behaviors, supporting their use as animal models for human stress research. However, human trauma experiences remain more complex.

Class Connection: Relates to animal models in behavioral research—rodents are used to study neural mechanisms of stress and learning due to their genetic and behavioral similarities to humans. However, limitations exist in generalizing findings across species.

Badour et al. (2017) - Habituation & PTSD Treatment

Aim: Investigated how distress and craving habituation during PTSD treatment affect symptom reduction in veterans with PTSD and substance use disorder.

Findings: Greater between-session habituation of distress and craving led to better PTSD symptom improvement, while within-session habituation was not predictive of outcomes.

Class Connection: Supports habituation as a learning process, showing that repeated exposure to distressing stimuli can reduce emotional reactivity over time.

Zheng et al. (2022) - Schizophrenia & Habituation

Aim: Explored how schizophrenia affects habituation and excitatory-inhibitory balance in the brain.

Findings: Patients had delayed habituation onset and frontal-temporal hyperactivity, suggesting disrupted sensory filtering and Excitatory/Inhibitory imbalance as a marker for schizophrenia.

Class Connection: Demonstrates how habituation dysfunction contributes to psychiatric disorders and supports the idea that learning and sensory adaptation are impaired in schizophrenia.

Daniel & Mason (2020) - Sensory Deprivation & Psychotic-Like Experiences

Aim: Examined how hallucination proneness, anxiety, and suggestibility contribute to psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in sensory deprivation.

Findings: Highly hallucination-prone individuals experienced more PLEs in sensory deprivation, supporting its use as a non-pharmacological model of psychosis.

Class Connection: Ties to optimal level theory, as sensory deprivation reduces external stimuli, leading the brain to generate internal experiences to compensate

Gustafsson et al. (2020) - Visual Exploration & Arousal

Aim: Investigated whether visual exploration is driven by habituation, mere exposure, or optimal level of arousal.

Findings: Participants preferred semi-familiar stimuli over highly novel or highly familiar ones, supporting the optimal-level theory—moderate novelty is most engaging.

Class Connection: Reinforces the idea that organisms seek an optimal balance of stimulation—too little causes boredom, too much causes stress.

Poole et al. (2020) - Opponent Process & Personality

Aim: Tested whether personality traits influence emotional aftereffects in an opponent process framework.

Findings: Individuals habituated to negative emotions were more likely to perceive positive emotions afterward and vice versa, aligning with opponent process theory—shy/social (conflicted) individuals experience emotional aftereffects most similar to opponent process theory.

Class Connection: Links to Opponent Process Theory—repeated exposure to an emotional stimulus weakens the initial response while strengthening the aftereffect. Evident in conflicted individuals, as repeated habituation to negative emotions leads to a stronger compensatory positive aftereffect. This explains why they were more likely to choose the opposite emotional face, as their aftereffect response was more pronounced.

Zhang-James, et al., (2023) Daily cannabis use may cause cannabis-induced hyperalgesia

Aim: Investigated whether daily cannabis use alters pain sensitivity over time.

Findings: Chronic cannabis users showed reduced pain tolerance, suggesting a phenomenon similar to opioid-induced hyperalgesia—a short-term pain reliever causing increased pain sensitivity long-term.

Class Connection: Aligns with opponent process theory, where initial relief (A-process) weakens with repeated use, while withdrawal (B-process) strengthens, increasing pain sensitivity.

Siegel et al. (1982) - studied heroin overdose death

Aim: Investigated whether environmental context affects heroin overdose risk by testing conditioned tolerance.

Findings: Rats receiving heroin in a familiar context had significantly lower mortality than those in a novel context. The control group (first-time users) had the highest lethality.

Class Connection: Supports Compensatory Response Theory from Pavlovian conditioning—contextual cues (CS) signal drug use, allowing the body to prepare (CR). In unfamiliar settings, the compensatory response fails, increasing overdose risk.

Shrira & Aggarwal - Drug Overdose Mortality of Residents and Visitors to Cities

Aim: Compared overdose mortality between residents and visitors to assess the role of familiar environments.

Findings: Visitors had higher overdose mortality, implying a lack of conditioned tolerance in unfamiliar contexts.

Class Connection: Reinforces Pavlovian conditioning in addiction—environmental cues trigger physiological responses that reduce drug effect. Absence of these cues leads to overdose, supporting the conditioned compensatory response model.

Crespo et al. (2023) - Context-Evoked Morphine Conditioned Effects

Aim: Examined how morphine-paired contexts affect behavior and brain activity.

Findings: Morphine-conditioned rats showed heightened activity and ERK activation in reward brain regions, even without the drug present.

Class Connection: Highlights classical conditioning—contextual cues become CSs that elicit drug-like CRs. Demonstrates how conditioned cues can drive relapse via learned associations in reward circuitry.

Stockhorst et al (2006). - Pavlovian Conditioning and Chemotherapy

Aim: Investigated how Pavlovian conditioning contributes to anticipatory nausea and taste aversions (CTA) in chemotherapy patients, and how learning principles can mitigate these side effects.

Findings: Chemotherapy patients developed conditioned taste aversions by associating the flavors of foods or drinks consumed before treatment with the nausea caused by the chemotherapy (the unconditioned stimulus). Two classical conditioning principles helped reduce this effect:

Latent Inhibition: When patients were pre-exposed repeatedly to a food or drink before chemotherapy (without pairing it with nausea), they were less likely to form an aversion to it during actual treatment. This works because prior exposure without consequence weakens the CS-US association.

Overshadowing: When a novel, strong-flavored item (like peppermint candy) was consumed alongside a regular meal before chemotherapy, patients formed an aversion to the stronger flavor rather than the entire meal. The strong flavor "overshadowed" the meal in the associative learning process, preserving the patient's acceptance of nutritious food.

Class Connection: This study exemplifies Pavlovian conditioning in a clinical setting, with chemotherapy (US) producing nausea (UR), and food flavors (CS) becoming associated with that response (CR). The use of latent inhibition and overshadowing reflects core learning principles applied to real-world problems, helping prevent maladaptive conditioned responses that could impact health and nutrition.

Vargas et al. (2021) - Psychedelics and Other Psychoplastogens for Treating Mental Illness

Aim: Reviewed how psychedelics and psychoplastogens promote neuroplasticity to treat mental illness.

Findings: Substances like psilocybin and ketamine enhance dendritic growth and BDNF expression, improving mood and cognitive flexibility.

Class Connection: Supports theories of learning and neuroplasticity, showing how altered brain connectivity can modify maladaptive behaviors and emotional responses, central to exposure and extinction learning in PTSD.

Psychoplastogens rewire brain structure (long-lasting, fast-acting).

High abuse potential; must be monitored in controlled settings.

Cost-effective long-term due to reduced healthcare reliance.

Gradowski - From fringe to mainstream: the Garcia effect (taste aversion)

Examined the development and impact of John Garcia's research on conditioned taste aversion, which challenged traditional learning theories by demonstrating that organisms form associations selectively based on evolutionary adaptations. Garcia's work showed that rats could quickly associate nausea with taste with only 1 pairing but not with other stimuli like lights or sounds, highlighting biological constraints on learning.

Mitchell et al. (2021) - MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Severe PTSD: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase 3 Study

Aim: Evaluated MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical trial for PTSD.

Findings: MDMA significantly improved PTSD symptoms compared to placebo. Participants experienced emotional breakthroughs and lower suicidality.

Class Connection: Ties to classical conditioning and extinction—MDMA enhances emotional safety during trauma recall, enabling reconditioning of fear associations (counterconditioning + extinction learning).

Parekh et al. (2022) - MDMA attenuates hippocampal IL-1β and stress-enhanced fear learning

Aim: Investigated MDMA's effects on neuroimmune responses and fear learning in rats.

Findings: MDMA reduced stress-enhanced fear learning and normalized hippocampal IL-1β levels, indicating reduced neuroinflammation. MDMA rats had decreased freezing response.

Class Connection: Combines Pavlovian fear conditioning with emerging neuroimmune models of learning—emphasizes the link between immune signaling, stress, and memory reconsolidation in PTSD.

Blackwood et al. (2020) - Escalated Oxycodone Self-Admin and Punishment

Aim: Investigated how compulsive oxycodone use affects sensitivity to punishment and changes in brain gene expression.

Findings: Rats with escalated oxycodone use were less sensitive to punishment and showed reduced opioid receptor expression and c-Fos activation in brain regions linked to control and addiction.

Class Connection: Demonstrates punishment resistance in operant conditioning. Drug-seeking persists despite negative outcomes due to neuroplastic changes, aligning with compulsive behavior models.

Myers et al. (2021) - Learning from Reward/Punishment in Opioid Addiction

Aim: Compared learning from reward and punishment in opioid users vs. controls.

Findings: Addicted individuals were less sensitive to punishment and overgeneralized rewards, showing impaired cognitive flexibility.

Class Connection: Reinforces operant conditioning principles—reward-driven learning dominates in addiction, and punishment becomes less effective due to altered feedback processing.

Marchant et al. (2018) - Punishment in Alcohol-Preferring Rats

Aim: Explored how alcohol-preferring rats respond to punishment during self-administration tasks.

Findings: Identified two subgroups—punishment-sensitive and punishment-resistant. Resistance correlated with prior heavy alcohol use and increased dorsal striatum activation.

Class Connection: Highlights individual differences in punishment sensitivity, consistent with operant conditioning and addiction models. Shows how habitual behavior resists aversive consequences.

Bargai et al. (2007) - Learned Helplessness in Battered Women

Aim: Tested whether learned helplessness mediates the relationship between InterPartner Violence and PTSD/depression.

Findings: Severity of abuse predicted PTSD and depression, and learned helplessness explained much of this connection.

Class Connection: Strongly supports learned helplessness theory—perceived lack of control after repeated trauma contributes to emotional dysfunction and mental illness.

Smallheer et al. (2018) - Learned helplessness and depressive symptoms following myocardial infarction

Aim: Examined whether patients recovering from myocardial infarction experience learned helplessness and its link to depression.

Findings: Patients with low perceived control over recovery showed more depressive symptoms.

Class Connection: Applies learned helplessness theory in a medical context, reinforcing the importance of perceived control in emotional and behavioral outcomes.

Crandall et al. (2024) Do positive childhood and adult experiences counter the effects of adverse childhood experiences on learned helplessness

Aim: Investigated whether positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and positive adult experiences (PAEs) buffer the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on learned helplessness.

Findings: Both PCEs and PAEs reduced the risk of developing learned helplessness in individuals with high ACE exposure. However, positive childhood experiences had a stronger protective effect than positive adult experiences. While PAEs still provided meaningful resilience, especially when childhood environments were lacking in support, they were less effective than early-life experiences in countering the impact of adversity.

Class Connection: Supports learned helplessness theory by showing how early uncontrollable stressors can shape long-term behavior and mindset. The findings also align with developmental and behavioral models, emphasizing the importance of early learning history and the cumulative effects of reinforcement in shaping perceived control and resilience.

Sakurai & Song (2022) - Neural Operant Conditioning as a Core Mechanism of Brain-Machine Interface Control (Review)

Aim: This review explored how neural operant conditioning serves as the foundational mechanism for controlling Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs)—technologies that allow users to control external devices (like robotic arms, cursors, or prosthetics) using only brain activity.

Findings: The authors highlighted that BMIs rely on feedback-based learning: users gradually learn to modulate their neural activity (e.g., increase or decrease firing rates of specific neurons) in response to reinforcement. Over time, this process leads to neural plasticity, strengthening the desired neural pathways and improving control accuracy. Key points include:

Neuroplasticity: Brain circuits adapt through practice and reinforcement, allowing for refined and reliable control.

Reinforcement Learning: Success in tasks (e.g., moving a cursor with thought) serves as a reward that reinforces the neural patterns associated with that success.

Learning Stability: Repeated practice improves the precision and consistency of neural control, making BMI use more effective over time.

Class Connection: This review connects directly to operant conditioning, showing how reinforcement and contingency apply not just to overt behavior but also to internal neural activity. BMI learning is an example of operant conditioning at the neural level—neural responses are shaped, strengthened, and maintained through feedback and reinforcement. The work underscores how behavioral principles like shaping, reinforcement, and feedback can be extended to brain-based technologies, and how learning theory informs cutting-edge neuroscience applications.

Patel et al. (2022) - Volitional Control of Individual Neurons in the Human Brain (Original Article)

Aim: Demonstrated that humans can learn to control individual neurons via real-time feedback in BMI systems.

Findings: Participants increased or decreased neural firing rates through feedback, showing improvement with practice.

Class Connection: Direct evidence of operant shaping in the brain. Reinforces the role of reinforcement, feedback, and contingency in adaptive neural plasticity.

Treanor et al.(2022) - Pavlovian Learning Processes in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: ACritical Review

Aim: Reviewed how Pavlovian fear conditioning mechanisms contribute to pediatric anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and specific phobias.

Findings: The review found that anxious children and adolescents exhibit:

Enhanced fear acquisition (stronger CRs to threat-predictive stimuli),

Slower extinction (difficulty reducing fear responses when the threat is no longer present),

Generalization of fear (responding fearfully to stimuli similar to the original CS),

Impaired safety learning (difficulty distinguishing safe vs. dangerous cues).

These findings were consistent across multiple conditioning paradigms, including differential conditioning, extinction recall tasks, and generalization gradients.

Class Connection: This paper underscores the role of Pavlovian conditioning in clinical anxiety, particularly how maladaptive learning processes contribute to persistent fear. It supports course concepts like stimulus generalization, resistance to extinction, and discriminative learning, and highlights the importance of early intervention that targets these learning mechanisms to treat anxiety in children.

Dymond (2019) - Overcoming avoidance in anxiety disorders: The contributions of Pavlovian and operant avoidance extinction methods

Aim: Reviewed how Pavlovian and operant extinction methods can be integrated to reduce maladaptive avoidance behaviors in anxiety disorders. (Mowrer two factor theory)

Findings: Avoidance behaviors are negatively reinforced (they reduce fear or discomfort), making them highly resistant to extinction. The paper identified:

Traditional exposure therapy focuses on Pavlovian extinction (breaking the CS-US link),

However, avoidance also needs operant extinction—where the avoidance response is no longer reinforced by fear reduction.

Dymond emphasizes Response Prevention as crucial: clients must not avoid feared stimuli during exposure to learn new associations.

Combined protocols (exposure + response prevention) were more effective than either alone.

Class Connection: Highlights the interaction of operant and classical conditioning in anxiety—fear is conditioned through Pavlovian mechanisms, but maintained through negative reinforcement. Demonstrates how successful treatment requires targeting both types of learning, reinforcing course principles like extinction, reinforcement, and contingency.

Beckers et al. (2023) - Understanding clinical fear and anxiety through the lens of human fear conditioning

Findings: The authors find that while fear conditioning models explain many features of clinical anxiety (like heightened acquisition and impaired extinction), many lab paradigms lack ecological validity. They call for more individualized, translational approaches that mirror real-world fear and avoidance behaviors more closely. People who show slower fear extinction may respond worse to exposure therapy. Stronger fear acquisition can predict greater symptom severity. This suggests personalizing treatments (based on learning profiles) could make therapy more effective.

Connection to Theory: Reaffirms the centrality of fear conditioning theories in understanding anxiety but stresses that these models must be expanded to account for the complexity and variability seen in clinical populations.

Limitation: fear learning models are over simplistic since anxiety is so complex, findings may have limited ecological validity