scholarly journals Anxiety and Depression Related Abnormalities in Socio-affective Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Hammond ◽  
Pengfei Xu ◽  
Hui Ai ◽  
Nicholas T Van Dam
Keyword(s):  
Affective Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Operant Learning ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
General Role ◽  
Rate Of Learning ◽  
Affective Feedback ◽  
Insufficient Sensitivity

High anxiety may be related insufficient sensitivity to changing reinforcement during operant learning. Whether such findings are specific to anxiety is unclear given a wider literature relating negative affect to abnormal learning and the possibility that relationships are not consistent across incentive types (i.e. punishment and reward) and outcomes (i.e., positive or negative). In two separate samples ( = 76; = 49), participants completed an operant learning task with positive, negative, and neutral socio-affective feedback, designed to assess adaptive responses to changing environmental volatility. Contrary to expectations, general affective distress, rather than anxiety or depression specifically, was related to an increase, rather than a decrease, in the rate of learning for negative outcomes in volatile, relative to stable, environments. Our results suggest an important but general role in anxiety and depression of overweighting negative feedback when the value of an action becomes uncertain, as when environmental volatility increases.

scholarly journals A 1-night operant learning task without food-restriction differentiates among mouse strains in an automated home-cage environment

2015 ◽  
Vol 283 ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Remmelink ◽  
Maarten Loos ◽  
Bastijn Koopmans ◽  
Emmeke Aarts ◽  
Sophie van der Sluis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Restriction ◽  
Home Cage ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Mouse Strains ◽  
Operant Learning

scholarly journals Relating Neurochemical Changes Associated with THC Use to Learning and Memory in Adolescent Rats

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ryan William Johnstone Steel
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Synaptic Activity ◽  
Rate Of Learning ◽  
Adolescent Rats ◽  
Neurochemical Changes ◽  
Newborn Neurons ◽  
Neurochemical Correlates

<p>Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug. Adolescents may be especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, and alarmingly, adolescence is also a period of heavy cannabis use. However, few studies have investigated the cognitive effects of cannabis use in adolescents specifically. Furthermore, the neurochemical correlates of cognitive impairment associated with cannabis use at any age have received very little experimental attention. This research project sought to address these shortcomings in the literature using THC, the major psychoactive component of cannabis, and a rat model of adolescence. The rate of learning was slower in THC-treated animals, and this was attributable to deficits in the cognitive function of 'chunking', a process by which the information capacity of short-term memory is enlarged. Impairment of chunking by cannabinoids has not been previously reported. Behavioural impairment by THC was associated with impaired hippocampal plasticity, including changes in synaptic activity and architecture, as well as changes in neurogenesis. The attenuation of structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus in response to training in a learning task was more pronounced than the subtle effects of THC-treatment on the survival and early development of newborn neurons. Importantly, no effects of THC were seen in animals not trained in the maze. Thus, plasticity is more sensitive to the effects of THC during times of learning, and this greater sensitivity likely accounts for the behavioural impairment associated with cannabis use. The data presented in this thesis add significantly to the existing literature by identifying novel behavioural and neurochemical processes by which cannabis use may impair learning and memory. Whether these impairments represent a greater sensitivity of adolescents to THC remains to be determined.</p>

The effect of age and gender on the time taken for horses to learn an operant task

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
K J Moss ◽  
L Greening
Keyword(s):  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Operant Learning ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Test Species ◽  
Operant Task ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Effect Of Age

The association between the age of a horse and their capacity for learning is understudied despite the large age range of horses used for both competition and leisure purposes in the UK and the considerable number of horses that swap over between different disciplines; for instance 4000 racehorse retire from racing each year and many go on to other careers including 900 each year going on to be polo ponies. A negative correlation between age and learning performance has been reported in test species to-date (Yagi et al., 1988); however relatively few studies have addressed this issue in equines (Madder & Price, 1980; Williams et al., 2004). The aim of the present study therefore was to investigate the association between a horse’s age and gender and the time taken to reach a pre-determined criterion during an operant learning task.

Effects of Low-Pass Filtering on the Rate of Learning and Retrieval from Memory of Speech-Like Stimuli

1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-285
Author(s):  
Robert Novak ◽  
Julia Davis
Keyword(s):  
Paired Associate ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Paired Associate Learning ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Rate Of Learning ◽  
Retrieval From Memory

Ten pairs of auditory-visual stimuli were utilized in a paired-associate learning task and a retrieval from auditory memory task presented to two groups of normal-hearing subjects. One group heard unfiltered auditory stimuli and the other group heard the same stimuli under low-pass filtering conditions. The number of trials required to learn the pairs was the measure for the learning task. The number of items recalled after presentation of strings of the auditory stimuli, ranging in length from two to nine items, was the measure of auditory retrieval. Comparison of performance between the two groups indicated that the group that heard filtered auditory stimuli required a significantly greater number of trials to learn the pairs to specifications, and performed significantly poorer in recall of five-item strings of stimuli than the group that heard unfiltered auditory stimuli. There was no difference between the two groups' performance in recall of two-, seven-, and nine-item strings. The effects of filtering are discussed with regard to their implications for understanding certain deficits associated with hearing loss.

scholarly journals Reexposure to a sensorimotor perturbation produces opposite effects on explicit and implicit learning processes

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. e3001147
Author(s):  
Guy Avraham ◽  
J. Ryan Morehead ◽  
Hyosub E. Kim ◽  
Richard B. Ivry
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Rate Of Learning ◽  
Explicit Recall ◽  
Future Learning

The motor system demonstrates an exquisite ability to adapt to changes in the environment and to quickly reset when these changes prove transient. If similar environmental changes are encountered in the future, learning may be faster, a phenomenon known as savings. In studies of sensorimotor learning, a central component of savings is attributed to the explicit recall of the task structure and appropriate compensatory strategies. Whether implicit adaptation also contributes to savings remains subject to debate. We tackled this question by measuring, in parallel, explicit and implicit adaptive responses in a visuomotor rotation task, employing a protocol that typically elicits savings. While the initial rate of learning was faster in the second exposure to the perturbation, an analysis decomposing the 2 processes showed the benefit to be solely associated with explicit re-aiming. Surprisingly, we found a significant decrease after relearning in aftereffect magnitudes during no-feedback trials, a direct measure of implicit adaptation. In a second experiment, we isolated implicit adaptation using clamped visual feedback, a method known to eliminate the contribution of explicit learning processes. Consistent with the results of the first experiment, participants exhibited a marked reduction in the adaptation function, as well as an attenuated aftereffect when relearning from the clamped feedback. Motivated by these results, we reanalyzed data from prior studies and observed a consistent, yet unappreciated pattern of attenuation of implicit adaptation during relearning. These results indicate that explicit and implicit sensorimotor processes exhibit opposite effects upon relearning: Explicit learning shows savings, while implicit adaptation becomes attenuated

scholarly journals Association between psychological risk factors and ischaemic heart disease in the open population of a large industrial centre of Eastern Siberia

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
R.D. Peskovets ◽  
◽  
S.Yu. Shtarik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Ischaemic Heart Disease ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Female Group ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Open Population ◽  
The City

Aim of study. To study gender-based association of high anxiety and depression with ischaemic heart disease exemplified by open population of the city of Krasnoyarsk. Material and methods. A representative sample formed from unoccupied population permanently residing in the city of Krasnoyarsk aged 25-64. Psychometric testing was performed via the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the prevalence of ischaemic heart disease was determined based on conventional epidemiological criteria. Results. High values of age-adjusted prevalence of anxiety and depression in the studied sample amounted to 40.1% and 35.0% respectively with no association with the gender. Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) was registered in 10.6% of the patients (15.8% male and 8.6% female subjects, p=0.092). Statistically significant association between IHD and high anxiety (OR=2.39; 95% CI 1.19-4.8; p=0.013) and depression (OR=2.1; 95% CI 1.1-4.1; p=0.031). Gender-discrete analysis has shown analogical associations of IHD with anxiety (OR=4.41; 95% CI 1.57-12.38; р=0.004) and depression (OR=2.91; 95% CI 1.20-7.10; р=0.027) in the female group. Analysis has shown absence of interrelation between the studied risk factors and IHD in the male group of patients. Conclusion. The factor of gender defines association between high anxiety and depression scores according to the HADS in open population of the city of Krasnoyarsk.

scholarly journals Dynamic social learning in temporally and spatially variable environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 200734
Author(s):  
Dominik Deffner ◽  
Vivien Kleinow ◽  
Richard McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Time Dynamics ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Group Members

Cultural evolution is partly driven by the strategies individuals use to learn behaviour from others. Previous experiments on strategic learning let groups of participants engage in repeated rounds of a learning task and analysed how choices are affected by individual payoffs and the choices of group members. While groups in such experiments are fixed, natural populations are dynamic, characterized by overlapping generations, frequent migrations and different levels of experience. We present a preregistered laboratory experiment with 237 mostly German participants including migration, differences in expertise and both spatial and temporal variation in optimal behaviour. We used simulation and multi-level computational learning models including time-varying parameters to investigate adaptive time dynamics in learning. Confirming theoretical predictions, individuals relied more on (conformist) social learning after spatial compared with temporal changes. After both types of change, they biased decisions towards more experienced group members. While rates of social learning rapidly declined in rounds following migration, individuals remained conformist to group-typical behaviour. These learning dynamics can be explained as adaptive responses to different informational environments. Summarizing, we provide empirical insights and introduce modelling tools that hopefully can be applied to dynamic social learning in other systems.

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