Cellular Analogs of Operant Behavior
Abstract
Our previous work indicates that hippocampal CA1 bursting may be reinforced by dopaminergic agents such as dopamine itself, cocaine, and certain dopamine receptor agonists. A major concern is that these agents may facilitate bursting merely by direct or indirect pharmacological stimulation of neuronal activity rather than by a cellular reinforcement process. We have always required as critical evidence of cellular reinforcement that noncontingent or random presentations of the positive agents will be relatively ineffective; and indeed random applications of dopamine, cocaine, and dynorphin A are ineffective and even tend to suppress the bursting of hippocampal pyramidal cells. One approach is to attempt to reinforce hippocampal bursting with a nonspecific depolarizing agent such as glutamate. Unlike dopamine and cocaine, burst- contingent applications of glutamate did not produce selective facilitation of cellular bursting when compared to ramdom presentations; indeed, both contingent and random glutamate applications reduced the likelihood of bursts, while at the same time increasing the frequency of individual spikes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 31, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA241560
Entities
People
- Larry Stein
Organizations
- University of California, Irvine