ANALYSIS OF AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING FOLLOWING CHOLINERGIC STIMULATION OF AMYGDALA IN RATS

Examines the disruption of certain types of fear-motivated learning caused by bilateral injection of carbachol into the amygdala of 201 rats. Passive avoidance and conditioned emotional response learning were severely impaired whereas simple active avoidance was not. Disruption of passive avoidance was restricted to long-term retention. Failure to retain the passive avoidance habit did not impair transfer of training to an active avoidance response. Despite unimpaired performance of the active avoidance response, carbachol-injected Ss did not show normal inhibition of eating in the avoidance situation. The main effect appeared to be selective disruption of fear-motivated response inhibition in situations requiring long-term retention. This effect of carbachol lasted many days after the injection. In addition, carbachol caused transitory changes in emotional and feeding behavior. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.