Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

"Stable multi-day recordings from chronically implanted microelectrodes within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of two monkeys performing three Go/NoGo visual discrimination tasks (one requiring well-learned responses, two requiring learning) demonstrated that the majority of prefrontal neurons were 'functionally stable'. Action potentials of 94 neurons were stable over 2-9 days; 66/94 (70%) of these cells responded each day, 22/94 (23%) never responded significantly, and 6/94 (6%) responded one day but not the next. Of 66 responsive neurons, 55 were selective for either Go or NoGo trials, individual stimuli, or eye movements." (Greenberg and Wilson, 2004) Selectivity was maintained, for 46/55 neurons across all recording days. Response strength (baseline vs. post-stimulation firing rates) and event-related response timing also displayed stability. Stability generalized across neuronal response type suggesting that functional stability is a general property. Long-term recordings from other studies supported similar conclusions suggesting that neurons throughout the brain are functionally stable. Single-day recordings from different neurons within the same cortical regions demonstrated neuronal response flexibility while monkeys learned associations among visual cues, and Go/NoGo behavioral responses. Of 116 neurons, 57 (49%) displayed significant change points in firing rates during novel learning (n=18), reversal learning (n=12), or both tasks (n=27). Six of 57(10.5%) neurons had firing rates changes prior to learning and might have been causally related to the monkeys' behavioral changes. However, only 18/152 (12%) of the total number of firing rate changes occurred prior to the monkeys' learning meaning that most appeared to be the consequences of learning rather than the causes.

The behavioral deficits produced by trimethyltin (TMT) are usually attributed to the hippocampal damage caused by this toxicant. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of TMT administration on acquisition and reversal of a discrete trial light-dark discrimination. Acquisition of this task is impaired by hippocampal lesions but the effects of TMT on it are not known. Forty-five days after some of the rats were given one of three doses of TMT, adult, male Long-Evans rats were given 100 trials per day for 20 days to acquire a discrete trial lever press discrimination with lit cue lights located above the correct lever. At the end of this time the contingencies were reversed and the rats were given 30 more days of training. No significant group differences occurred during the first 20 days. A significant group effect was found for the 30 days of reversal training. The rats given the highest dose of TMT (6 mg/kg) obtained significantly more reinforcements during reversal training than the other groups. Because surgical hippocampal lesions generally impair both acquisition and reversal of visual discriminations, these data were unexpected and suggest that other factors than hippocampal damage enter into the behavioral effects of TMT.