The influence of olfactory context on Pavlovian conditioning and its expression in preweanling (16-day-old) and adult rats |
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| Authors: | Nancy A Lariviere Wei -Jung Chen Norman E Spear |
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| Institution: | 1. Center for Developmental Psychology, State University of New York at Binghamton, 13901, Binghamton, NY
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| Abstract: | In a series of experiments, we tested the responses of preweanling (16 days postpartum) and adult rats to a specific olfactory context that was present during conditioning and testing of a brightness-location aversion. The first set of experiments established that (1) contrary to previously published effects with other distinctive contexts during conditioning and testing, a novel olfactory context impaired conditioning and its expression in preweanlings; (2) if the preweanlings were previously familiarized with the olfactory context, its presence impaired neither conditioning nor its expression; and (3) although conditioning in the absence of the olfactory context was equivalent for adults and preweanlings, the novel olfactory context had no effect on conditioning or its expression in adults. In the next set of experiments, we tested whether a conditioned aversion had been formed to the olfactory context. It was determined that although preweanlings acquired a substantial aversion to the olfactory context, whether novel or familiar, adults gave no indication of conditioning to the novel olfactory context. A final set of experiments established that preweanlings acquired an association between (or unitized) the CS + and the context. These results add to previous indications that preweanlings may be especially sensitive to redundant or irrelevant features of the conditioning episode. |
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