M4S2 Non-Associataive Learning: Habituation and Sensitization

What is habituation?

frequent exposure to a stimulus without reinforcement acts reduce physiological or behavioral response to stimulus

What is involved in sensitization

Salient stimulus temporarily increases strength of response to other stimuli

How is habituation studied in laboratories?

acoustic startle response, orienting reflex

What are the five characteristics of habituation

1. activation of cell assembly

2. reverberating activity after stimulus is removed

3. hebbian modifications strengthen neuronal reciprocal connections that are active simultaneously

4. strengthened connections contain stimulus engram

5. after learning, partial activation of assembly leads to activation of entire presentation of the stimulus

What are the five key behavioral characteristics of habituation?

1. habituation

2. spontaneous recovery

3. potentiation of habituation

4. dependence on presentation rate

5. Dishabituation to a Novel Stimulus

What is involved in spontaneous recovery in habituation?

response recovers partially when stimulus is withheld after a response decrement

What does more frequent stimulation result in, in habituation?

more pronounced response decrement

How does dishabituation occur in habituation?

presentation of a novel stimulus leads to the disinhabilition of the original stimulus

How does habituation occur at the synapse?

membrane potential of the postsynaptic neuron decreases with each stimulus

Tetanic stimulation

A series of individual high frequency electrical stimulations of a neuron (used for LTP induction)

The startle response is mediated by what? What pathways does this organ receive inputs from?

caudal pontine reticular nucleus, trigeminal and auditory pathways

In aplysia, when sensitized, the presynaptic neuron will release ___ neurotransmitter onto the motor neuron

more

Draw out the 6 steps to sensitization in aplysia

okay

Draw out the 6 steps to habituation in aplysia

will do boss

How does long term habituation occur?

reduced presynaptic connections to motor neuron

How does long term sensitization occur?

increased presynapptic connections

What did Bedecarrates er al discover?

that RNA transfer between LTS aplysia and untrained animals results in induced engram

What does the result from Bedecarrates et al imply?

RNA is sufficient to generate LTS engram

People with autism are that to have defecits in what

habituation