Abstract
THE difficulty of explaining conditioning in terms of a simple neuronal model has been discussed by Burns1. The problem lies in the fact that the only relatively long-lasting type of facilitation that has so far been experimentally demonstrated involves presynaptic terminals so that activity of neurones in the unconditioned reflex pathway cannot be expected to facilitate synaptic connexions from neurones which converge on to them from another afferent pathway, Eccles has proposed a rather complex neuronal model to avoid this difficulty2. Even this is admitted to be inadequate since it requires that the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli be applied simultaneously, and even then could only provide a low-level bombardment of the synapses which must be facilitated unless additional reverberating circuits are included. There is evidence to suggest that reverberating circuits do play a part in the early stages of conditioning3,4, but no complete model including them has been proposed.
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References
Burns, B. D., The Mammalian Cerebral Cortex (E. Arnold, Ltd., 1958).
Eccles, J. C., The Neurophysiological Basis of Mind (Clarendon Press, 1953).
Olds, J., Ann. Rev. Physiol., 21, 385 (1959).
Duncan, C. P., J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol., 42, 32 (1949).
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MAINWOOD, G. A Neuronal Model for Conditioning. Nature 190, 177 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/190177a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/190177a0
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