Contextual learning and the development of memory systems in the infant rat

REVILLO DAMIÁN; PAGLINI GABRIELA; ARIAS CARLOS

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXXII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia (SAN); 2017

It?s common to think about development as a period of immaturity. It doesn?t mean that infants are immature but as a society, we consider that there?s only one stage of maturity (the adulthood). We can find this social conception of development into neurocognitive theories. In cognitive neuroscience it?s common to assume different memory systems and to describe their development through the study of contextual learning and the functional development of the hippocampus. For instance, the absence of recovery-from-extinction effects in preweanling rats has been related to the immaturity of the hippocampus, which in turn is linked to a simple memory system. This relationship has been confirmed in an experiment designed to show up that the administration of MK-801 (that blocks extinction learning in adult rats) does not affect extinction in infant rats (Langton, et al 2007). In the present study, we analyzed the relationship between MK-801 and extinctionlearning in infant rats, from an ecological model. Given that immaturity isn?t a valid explanation in this model, our experimental designs were different to the one used by Langton et al., and they allowed us observing that MK-801 doesn?t block extinction learning, but it produces conditioned motor responses interfering with the behavioral index of memory. These results are analyzed in the framework of the discussion between theecological and the neuromaturational model of development and in terms of the construction of meanings.