Updating long-term memory of time in an appetitive operant conditioning in rats: Triggering plasticity in amygdala nuclei through temporal error detection as a function of level of training

• Grant number: 24/09191-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 16, 2024
• End date: February 27, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Jose Lino Oliveira Bueno
• Grantee: Vitória Ferrari Shiroma
• Supervisor: Valerie Doyere
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Institut Des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/18348-5 - Updating long-term memory of time in an appetitive operant conditioning in rats: Triggering plasticity in amygdala nuclei through temporal error detection as a function of level of training, BP.IC

Abstract

Theories of reinforcement learning indicate that prediction error, i.e., the discrepancy between the current and expected outcome, drives memory updating, through either reconsolidation or consolidation processes. Pavlovian studies have shown that prediction error detection is a fundamental mechanism for triggering memory updates, with the temporal relationship between stimuli playing a critical role. Recent studies in appetitive operant conditioning demonstrated that a negative prediction error following a change in temporal contingencies, but not a positive one, resulted in the update of long-term memory of time. These differential results may be related to the experimental conditions, which may control the formation and updating of memory depending on precise parameters (i.e., associative strength, valence). For instance, in appetitive operant conditioning, training is the phase in which the memory trace encoding the lever-reinforcement association and all reward-related information is formed, stabilized, recalled, and re-established during consecutive sessions. The ability of a new information to destabilize the memory could be related to the current associative strength of that memory. Thus, the present Project aims to explore whether negative and/or positive temporal prediction errors, in operant conditioning, result in a symmetric or asymmetric updating of temporal expectations in long-term memory depending on the amount of training. This study will assess whether the new memory trace induced by the updating of temporal expectations in long-term memory will activate differentially the amygdala, by comparing its neural activation as a function of 1) the number of initial training sessions and 2) the sign (positive vs. negative) of the prediction error experienced.