Strong Aversive Conditioning Triggers a Long-Lasting Generalized Aversion

Generalization is an adaptive mnemonic process in which an animal can leverage past learning experiences to navigate future scenarios, but overgeneralization is a hallmark feature of anxiety disorders. Therefore, understanding the synaptic plasticity mechanisms that govern memory generalization and its persistence is an important goal. Here, we demonstrate that strong CTA conditioning results in a long-lasting generalized aversion that persists for at least two weeks. Using brain slice electrophysiology and activity-dependent labeling of the conditioning-active neuronal ensemble within the gustatory cortex, we find that strong CTA conditioning induces a long-lasting increase in synaptic strengths that occurs uniformly across superficial and deep layers of GC. Repeated exposure to salt, the generalized tastant, causes a rapid attenuation of the generalized aversion that correlates with a reversal of the CTA-induced increases in synaptic strength. Unlike the uniform strengthening that happens across layers, reversal of the generalized aversion results in a more pronounced depression of synaptic strengths in superficial layers. Finally, the generalized aversion and its reversal do not impact the acquisition and maintenance of the aversion to the conditioned tastant (saccharin). The strong correlation between the generalized aversion and synaptic strengthening, and the reversal of both in superficial layers by repeated salt exposure, strongly suggests that the synaptic changes in superficial layers contribute to the formation and reversal of the generalized aversion. In contrast, the persistence of synaptic strengthening in deep layers correlates with the persistence of CTA. Taken together, our data suggest that layer-specific synaptic plasticity mechanisms separately govern the persistence and generalization of CTA memory.

Transformation of the Globalization Process

This chapter focuses on the analysis of the globalization process as a phenomenon of the recent decades. The chapter starts with an analysis of the roots of globalization, which are a combination of economic policies and labour-saving technologies. Then the most powerful actor, the transnational company, is introduced, followed by the analysis of their position in the world division of labour. Special attention is given to the changes brought by financial crises, especially the Great Recession. The changing nature of globalization is demonstrated also via the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end, the author presents possible future scenarios, applying them on the Czech Republic, as a country strongly connected with the world economy and placed in the position of a dependent economy.

Fostering Imagined Economies on Twitter

Startups are entrepreneurial organisations that aim to develop a scalable and disruptive business. However, these small ventures operate in an environment of extreme uncertainty. The startup economy takes place in the present but is directed towards the future. This chapter critically investigates in online and offline realms the circulation of imagined futures that create causal links to bridge the gap between the present economic scenario and potential futures in the Italian startup food economy. This work adopted a mixed-method approach framed in a qualitative exploratory strategy which was designed to integrate qualitative techniques and digital methods. This work concludes by highlighting the co-evolutionary process between online and offline realms. On the one hand, online narratives allow economic actors to perform in radical uncertain economic contexts, while, on the other hand, the offline practices give legitimacy and credibility to these potential future scenarios.