More rapid reversal learning following overtraining in the rat is evidence that behavioural and cognitive flexibility are dissociable

Dhawan, Sandeep S.; Tait, David S.; Brown, Valerie J.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2019.01.055

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…We tested whether the monkey memorized the object information on both tasks or tried instead to guess the object. It can be assumed that the animal does recognize visually presented objects since seeing objects will give all information needed to grasp objects, especially for an animal that was trained on these objects beforehand and had the chance to familiarize itself with them (Gibson, 1958 ; Eimas, 1967 ; Dhawan et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Turntable Setup for Testing Visual and Tactile Grasping Movements in Non-human Primates

Buchwald

Schaffelhofer

Dörge

et al. 2021

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Grasping movements are some of the most common movements primates do every day. They are important for social interactions as well as picking up objects or food. Usually, these grasping movements are guided by vision but proprioceptive and haptic inputs contribute greatly. Since grasping behaviors are common and easy to motivate, they represent an ideal task for understanding the role of different brain areas during planning and execution of complex voluntary movements in primates. For experimental purposes, a stable and repeatable presentation of the same object as well as the variation of objects is important in order to understand the neural control of movement generation. This is even more the case when investigating the role of different senses for movement planning, where objects need to be presented in specific sensory modalities. We developed a turntable setup for non-human primates (macaque monkeys) to investigate visually and tactually guided grasping movements with an option to easily exchange objects. The setup consists of a turntable that can fit six different objects and can be exchanged easily during the experiment to increase the number of presented objects. The object turntable is connected to a stepper motor through a belt system to automate rotation and hence object presentation. By increasing the distance between the turntable and the stepper motor, metallic components of the stepper motor are kept at a distance to the actual recording setup, which allows using a magnetic-based data glove to track hand kinematics. During task execution, the animal sits in the dark and is instructed to grasp the object in front of it. Options to turn on a light above the object allow for visual presentation of the objects, while the object can also remain in the dark for exclusive tactile exploration. A red LED is projected onto the object by a one-way mirror that serves as a grasp cue instruction for the animal to start grasping the object. By comparing kinematic data from the magnetic-based data glove with simultaneously recorded neural signals, this setup enables the systematic investigation of neural population activity involved in the neural control of hand grasping movements.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Turntable Setup for Testing Visual and Tactile Grasping Movements in Non-human Primates

Buchwald

Schaffelhofer

Dörge

et al. 2021

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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“…Furthermore, reversals are particularly rapid when they repeat serially (Harlow 1949). The benefit from repeating a reversal could arise in part from familiarity with the particular stimuli and the task requirements and is thus similar to the benefit of over-training (Dhawan et al 2019). A benefit of repeating a reversal could also be due to incorporation into the cognitive structure the concept that 'reversals may occur' (Izquierdo et al 2017).…”

Section: How Is Behavioural Flexibility Measured and Cognitivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reversal learning was thought to involve two distinct phases (see Sutherland and Mackintosh 1971): initially, after the change in the reinforcement contingency is detected, the response must extinguish; subsequent to a period of responding randomly, the new association is gradually learned. We recently demonstrated that this is overly simplistic: responding 'at chance' while seeking a solution is unlikely to be governed by responding 'by chance' (Dhawan et al 2019). While reversal learning paradigms can depend on model-free learning, they may also involve modelbased processes (Doll et al 2012;Izquierdo et al 2017;Dhawan et al 2019).…”

Section: The Effects Of Escitalopram On Reversal Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We recently demonstrated that this is overly simplistic: responding 'at chance' while seeking a solution is unlikely to be governed by responding 'by chance' (Dhawan et al 2019). While reversal learning paradigms can depend on model-free learning, they may also involve modelbased processes (Doll et al 2012;Izquierdo et al 2017;Dhawan et al 2019). In serial reversal learning tasks, performance improves with each reversal, as if the animal learns, over-and-above the particular S+/S− attribute, a win-stay/lose-shift rule, which Harlow (1949) referred to as a 'learning set'.…”

Section: The Effects Of Escitalopram On Reversal Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Escitalopram Restores Reversal Learning Impairments in Rats with Lesions of Orbital Frontal Cortex

Tait

Bowman

Miller

et al. 2021

Language, Cognition, and Mind

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The term ‘cognitive structures’ is used to describe the fact that mental models underlie thinking, reasoning and representing. Cognitive structures generally improve the efficiency of information processing by providing a situational framework within which there are parameters governing the nature and timing of information and appropriate responses can be anticipated. Unanticipated events that violate the parameters of the cognitive structure require the cognitive model to be updated, but this comes at an efficiency cost. In reversal learning a response that had been reinforced is no longer reinforced, while an alternative is now reinforced, having previously not been (A+/B− becomes A−/B+). Unanticipated changes of contingencies require that cognitive structures are updated. In this study, we examined the effect of lesions of the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) and the effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), escitalopram, on discrimination and reversal learning. Escitalopram was without effect in intact rats. Rats with OFC lesions had selective impairment of reversal learning, which was ameliorated by escitalopram. We conclude that reversal learning in OFC-lesioned rats is an easily administered and sensitive test that can detect effects of serotonergic modulation on cognitive structures that are involved in behavioural flexibility.

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“…It is a trait that has been the focus of much recent research. Recent studies on it have spanned an array of animal species including mice (Marwari & Dawe, 2018; Morris-Schaffer, et al., 2018; Piantadosi et al., 2019), rats (Dhawan et al., 2019; Kougias et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2017), rhesus monkeys (Shnitko et al., 2019), chimpanzees (Lacreuse et al., 2018), horses (Fortin et al., 2018), parrots (van Horik & Emery, 2018), pigeons (Darby et al., 2018), and bees (Loukola et al., 2017). Increasingly, scientists have begun to realize that cognitive flexibility may be crucial in shaping certain higher order thought processes in humans, and that those processes help to shape personal characteristics and worldviews.…”

Section: Intellectual and Neural Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrated Review of Recent Research on the Relationships Between Religious Belief, Political Ideology, Authoritarianism, and Prejudice

Cuevas

Dawson

2020

Psychol Rep

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Religious ideology and extremism have had an increasing influence on political agendas in the United States and much of the developed world in the past 60 years, with right-wing ideology becoming more prevalent this decade. This article serves as a review of studies investigating the correlations between political ideology, religiosity, right-wing authoritarianism, ingroups/outgroups, and prejudice in an attempt to describe and understand the well-established links between these dimensions. We discuss several group-level theories including Terror Management Theory, Social Identity Theory, Realistic Group Conflict Theory among others to frame the intercorrelations of these constructs in an effort to better understand the underlying mechanisms that drive individuals to embody religious and political beliefs. We then discuss individual-level cognitive and psychological differences such as intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and specific biological and neurological limitations of brain function that may influence people to adopt certain religious and political beliefs. Through a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms of religious and political extremism, we may be better equipped to assuage the fear and denigration that is associated with many of these beliefs.

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More rapid reversal learning following overtraining in the rat is evidence that behavioural and cognitive flexibility are dissociable

Cited by 24 publications

References 39 publications

A Turntable Setup for Testing Visual and Tactile Grasping Movements in Non-human Primates

A Turntable Setup for Testing Visual and Tactile Grasping Movements in Non-human Primates

Escitalopram Restores Reversal Learning Impairments in Rats with Lesions of Orbital Frontal Cortex

An Integrated Review of Recent Research on the Relationships Between Religious Belief, Political Ideology, Authoritarianism, and Prejudice

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