Abstract
CROW1 and Kety2 have advanced the hypothesis that the fine network of noradrenaline-containing nerve terminals which innervates the cerebral cortex3 is a necessary component of the mechanism of learning. In particular, it is suggested that these neurones deliver a “results of action”4 signal which registers the successful outcome of a particular behavioural sequence. The noradrenaline released in the cortex is believed to interact with a transient synaptic change resulting from recent neural activity (the ‘short-term trace’), to initiate the long term synaptic changes presumed to underlie learning. Various authors have suggested the existence of such a “confirming reaction”5, “results of action”4, or “now print”6 mechanism. The diffuse distribution of noradrenergic terminals in the cerebral cortex would allow this system to deliver a generalised message of the type required. Ungerstedt7 has demonstrated histochemically that the cortical noradrenergic terminals originate from cell bodies of the nucleus locus coeruleus in the dorsal pontine tegmentum, and this has been confirmed in biochemical studies8,9. The concept of the coerulo-cortical noradrenergic system as a reinforcement pathway is supported by the observation that rats with electrodes in the region of the locus coeruleus can be trained to self stimulate10,11 and this behaviour is accompanied by increased noradrenaline turnover in the ipsilateral cortex12.
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References
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CROW, T., WENDLANDT, S. Impaired acquisition of a passive avoidance response after lesions induced in the locus coeruleus by 6-OH-dopamine. Nature 259, 42–44 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/259042b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/259042b0
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