Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

SERIAL PATTERN EXTRAPOLATION IS SPARED DURING A MUSCARINIC CHOLINERGIC CHALLENGE IN RATS

Abstract Details

2017, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
Rats have the capacity to extrapolate a known sequence of events to anticipate a novel item. We examined whether or not rats can extrapolate a serial pattern during a muscarinic cholinergic challenge. Adult male and female rats learned to nosepoke a sequential pattern of responses in a circular array of 8 receptacles attached one each to the walls of an octagonal chamber. This training pattern consisted of seven 3-element chunks of a rule-based serial pattern, namely, 123-234-345-456-567-678-781. On the day after meeting a high criterion on the training pattern, rats were given i.p. injections of 0.6 mg/kg scopolamine hydrobromide, a muscarinic cholinergic blocker, before encountering patterns consisting of the 7-chunk training pattern plus an added eighth chunk. The added chunk was either consistent with pattern structure (chunk “812”) or contained a terminal element that violated pattern structure (chunk “818”, where the violation element is underlined). Under scopolamine, and even while showing scopolamine-induced impairments of performance throughout the pattern, rats in both groups extrapolated known pattern structure in the novel added chunk, producing approximately 60% rule-consistent “2” responses on the terminal element of both types of chunks. Thus, despite scopolamine exposure, both male and female rats extrapolated well-learned pattern structure to a new chunk. Whereas earlier work showed that muscarinic cholinergic suppression had little effect on rule learning during acquisition of a pattern, the current study demonstrated that intact muscarinic cholinergic neurotransmission is not necessary for extrapolation of a well-learned rule to a novel chunk.
Stephen Fountain (Advisor)
David Riccio (Committee Member)
Aaron Jasnow (Committee Member)
Beth Wildman (Committee Member)
59 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Miller-Cahill, M. E. (2017). SERIAL PATTERN EXTRAPOLATION IS SPARED DURING A MUSCARINIC CHOLINERGIC CHALLENGE IN RATS [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent150755365388878

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Miller-Cahill, Megan. SERIAL PATTERN EXTRAPOLATION IS SPARED DURING A MUSCARINIC CHOLINERGIC CHALLENGE IN RATS . 2017. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent150755365388878.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Miller-Cahill, Megan. "SERIAL PATTERN EXTRAPOLATION IS SPARED DURING A MUSCARINIC CHOLINERGIC CHALLENGE IN RATS ." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent150755365388878

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)