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dc.creatorPatton, Brianne Colemarie
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-22T20:40:24Z
dc.date.available2013-02-22T20:40:24Z
dc.date.created2001
dc.date.issued2013-02-22
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2001-Fellows-Thesis-P3682
dc.descriptionDue to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.en
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 21-22).en
dc.description.abstractWhy animals learn and how they do so has long been a topic of inquiry and research. Recently, King, Joynes, Meagher and Grau (1996) showed that exposure to a mild aversive event (a brief shock) can enhance both learning and pain. My thesis explored the neural mechanisms that underlie this effect. Prior research suggested that the septum may play a role in both pain and learning, but the relationship between these two phenomena had not been defined. My hypothesis was that exposure to an aversive event may impair the activity of the septum and thereby enhance stimulus processing. This in turn could increase the painfulness of subsequent aversive stimuli (hyperalgesia) and facilitate learning. If my hypothesis is correct, then pharmacologically inducing a state of arousal (by injecting scopolamine, an acetylcholine antagonist) should sensitize both pain and learning. As predicted, Experiment 1 showed that scopolamine induces hyperalgesia in a dose-dependant fashion. Experiment 2 examined the drug's effect on learning using a Pavlovian conditioning procedure. If scopolamine enhanced the painfulness of the aversive unconditioned stimulus, then it should also augment learning. The data show a trend to the non-monotonic function described by Fanselow et al (1994), and can be explained with their explanation of a behavioral systems approach. My data suggest that acetylcholine is indeed playing a role in hyperalgesia and enhanced learning, although more research is needed to further clarify this role.en
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherTexas A&M University
dc.rightsThis thesis was part of a retrospective digitization project authorized by the Texas A&M University Libraries in 2008. Copyright remains vested with the author(s). It is the user's responsibility to secure permission from the copyright holder(s) for re-use of the work beyond the provision of Fair Use.en
dc.subjectpsychology 2.en
dc.subjectMajor psychology 2.en
dc.titleThe neurobiological mechanisms underlying the sensitization of pain and learningen
thesis.degree.departmentpsychology 2en
thesis.degree.disciplinepsychology 2en
thesis.degree.nameFellows Thesisen
thesis.degree.levelUndergraduateen
dc.type.genrethesisen
dc.type.materialtexten
dc.format.digitalOriginreformatted digitalen


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