Open-field exposure facilitates consummatory extinction

Abstract

During extinction, the organism learns that a conditioned stimulus or a conditioned response is no longer associated with an unconditioned stimulus, and as a consequence, a decrement in the response is presented. The exposure to novel situations (e.g. exploration of a novel open field) has been used widely to modulate (i.e. either enhance or deteriorate) learning and memory. The aim of the present study was to test whether open-field exposure could modulate consummatory extinction. The results indicated that open-field exposure accelerated the extinction response (i.e. experimental animals provided novelty exposure had lower consummatory behavior than control animals) when applied before - but not after - the first extinction trial, or when applied before the second extinction trial. The results suggest that environmental treatments such as novelty exposure provide a valuable, nonpharmacological alternative to potentially modulate extinction processes.

Cognitive impairment and transcriptomic profile in hippocampus of young mice after multiple neonatal exposures to sevoflurane

“…Open field tests were carried out to investigate the anxiety-like and exploratory behaviors, according to the previously described methods [62]. A central area of 10 × 10 cm 2 was defined in the field box (40 × 40 × 40 cm 3 ).…”