Behavioural responses in uncertain conditions are influenced by the orbital prefrontal cortex

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dc.contributor.authorTrow, Jan E.
dc.contributor.authorUniversity of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
dc.contributor.supervisorMcDonald, Robert J.
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-20T21:54:14Z
dc.date.available2016-10-20T21:54:14Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.degree.levelMastersen_US
dc.description.abstractThe orbital prefrontal cortex (OPFC) is implicated in generating outcome expectancies and in preventing the over-generalization of fear. Here, I investigate if the OPFC supports associative processes by determining the relevance of cues during behavioural tasks with relatively high levels of uncertainty. Two projects were conducted: one using appetitive and aversive context conditioning and another using a cue/place variant of the Morris water task. I observed that OPFC inactivation resulted in generalized responses on the appetitive and aversive context conditioning tasks. Further, I observed that after OPFC inactivation, rats favour spatial over cue responses in a competition test of the water task. These results support a role for the OPFC in influencing response strategies and suggest this region is critical for constraining responses during uncertain conditions. Through interactions with learning and memory systems, these results suggest the OPFC supports associative processes during uncertainty by mediating between discrimination and generalization.en_US
dc.embargoNoen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/4622
dc.language.isoen_CAen_US
dc.proquest.subject0317en_US
dc.proquest.subject0602en_US
dc.proquestyesYesen_US
dc.publisherLethbridge, Alta : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Neuroscienceen_US
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Neuroscienceen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Scienceen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesThesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science)en_US
dc.subjectassociative processesen_US
dc.subjectbehavioural responsesen_US
dc.subjectcue relevanceen_US
dc.subjectfear responsesen_US
dc.subjectOPFCen_US
dc.subjectuncertaintyen_US
dc.titleBehavioural responses in uncertain conditions are influenced by the orbital prefrontal cortexen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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