Electrical stimulation of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex in rabbits inhibits the expression of conditioned eyelid responses but not their acquisition.

ABSTRACT: We have studied the role of rostral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on reflexively evoked blinks and on classically conditioned eyelid responses in alert-behaving rabbits. The rostral mPFC was identified by its afferent projections from the medial half of the thalamic mediodorsal nuclear complex. Classical conditioning consisted of a delay paradigm using a 370-ms tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and a 100-ms air puff directed at the left cornea as the unconditioned stimulus (US). The CS coterminated with the US. Electrical train stimulation of the contralateral rostral mPFC produced a significant inhibition of air-puff-evoked blinks. The same train stimulation of the rostral mPFC presented during the CS-US interval for 10 successive conditioning sessions significantly reduced the gene

SUBMITTER: Leal-Campanario R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1899194 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature