The role of the primary motor cortex in the acquisition of new motor skills was evaluated during classical conditioning of vibrissal protraction responses in behaving mice, using a trace paradigm. Conditioned stimulus (CS) presentation elicited a characteristic field potential in the vibrissal motor cortex, which was dependent on the synchronized…

The murine vibrissae sensorimotor system has been scrutinized as a target of motor learning through trace classical conditioning. Conditioned eyelid responses were acquired by using weak electrical whisker-pad stimulation as conditioned stimulus (CS) and strong electrical periorbital stimulation as unconditioned stimulus (US). In addition,…

We studied the effects of a selective lesion in rats, with 192-IgG-saporin, of the cholinergic neurons located in the medial septum/diagonal band (MSDB) complex on the acquisition of classical and instrumental conditioning paradigms. The MSDB lesion induced a marked deficit in the acquisition, but not in the retrieval, of eyeblink classical…