Conclusions
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1.
It was shown in the study of the neurophysiological mechanism of the process of switching of instrumental CR's that switching is provided for by the tonic and phasic associative components of the nerve-cell response. Significant differences were established in the tonic activity and phasic heterogeneous conditioned-reflex activity. The characteristic dynamics of the tonic associative activity and phasic response of a cell to a conditioned stimulus during switching were demonstrated.
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2.
A correlation was established between the changes in phasic and tonic activity upon CR switching (ρ=0.60; β=0.99), and the decisive role was determined of tonic activity in the differences in the response character upon a change in the signal meaning of the stimulus.
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3.
The leading role was established of motivational excitation in the change in neuronal tonic activity upon a change in reinforcement and in the cellular response to the same stimulus upon a change in its signal meaning.
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4.
Conditioned-reflex switching is based on a special form of the nerve-cell associative plasticity — the ability to produce various responses to an identical signal stimulus during various forms of reinforcement.
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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel'nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 879–887, September–October, 1982.
The authors thank A. S. Nikolaevskii for consultation on the statistical analysis of the experimental data.
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Timofeeva, N.O., Kotlyar, B.I. & Popovich, L.D. Analysis of the neuronal mechanism of conditioned-reflex switching. Neurosci Behav Physiol 14, 146–152 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01185222
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01185222