Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?-1

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?"</p><p>BMC Biology 2006;4():8-8.</p><p>Published online 13 Apr 2006</p><p>PMCID:PMC1459217.</p><p>Copyright © 2006 Peciña et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p>os plume as colored symbol in medial shell of nucleus accumbens. Color depicts magnification effect of CRF (500 ng) microinjection at that site on peaks of lever pressing triggered by a 30 sec auditory CS+ previously associated with sucrose reward (within-subject percentage elevation of CRF versus vehicle in the same rat; 100%=vehicle). Size of central symbol depicts radius of intense Fos elevation; size of surrounding halos depict outer radius of moderate Fos elevation. For the sagittal map, bilateral accumbens sites from left and right sides of each rat brain are collapsed together into one combined sagittal map of accumbens for simplicity. Maps adapted from Paxinos and Watson [46]

Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?-0

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?"</p><p>BMC Biology 2006;4():8-8.</p><p>Published online 13 Apr 2006</p><p>PMCID:PMC1459217.</p><p>Copyright © 2006 Peciña et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p>w elevation of Fos compared to normal virgin tissue. Radial arms extending from center show sampling points for Fos measurement (125 μm × 125 μm blocks; 5× magnification). B. CRF microinjection induces intense elevation over normal tissue levels (depicted by color: 10× elevation over normal denoted by yellow, 5× = dark orange; 2× = light orange). CRF also causes elevation compared to vehicle microinjection levels at equivalent points (depicted by dotted lines; 3× relative increase over vehicle-levels denoted by thick dotted line, 5× = thin dotted line; upper right; plume from CRF 500 ng dose in 0.2 μl microinjection volume)

Implicit learning and emotional responses in nine-month-old infants

<p>To study the interplay between motor learning and emotional responses of young infants, we developed a contingent learning paradigm that included two related, difficult, operant tasks. We also coded facial expression to characterise emotional response to learning. In a sample of nine-month-old healthy Chinese infants, 44.7% achieved learning threshold during this challenging arm-conditioning test. Some evidence of learning was observed at the beginning of the second task. The lowest period of negative emotions coincided with the period of maximum movement responses after the initiation of the second task, and movement responses negatively correlated with the frequency of negative emotions. Positive emotions, while generally low throughout the task, increased during peak performance especially for learners. Peak frequency of movement responses was positively correlated with the frequency of positive emotions. Despite the weak evidence of learning this difficult task, our results from the learners would suggest that increasing positive emotions, and perhaps down-regulating negative emotional responses, may be important for improving performance and learning a complex operant task in infancy. Further studies are necessary to determine the role of emotions in learning difficult tasks in infancy.</p