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R C Wilcott

Publications and source records attributed to R C Wilcott.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Further investigation of preoperative overtraining, visual cortex lesions and black-white discrimination by the rat.

Preoperative overtraining can improve retention after brain lesions. However, studies of effects of overtraining on relearning of a black-white discrimination after visual cortex lesions in the rat have obtained conflicting results. Another experiment was done on this problem. The postoperative performance of overtrained rats was found to be slightly better than that of non-overtrained rats, but the difference was not significant. Nevertheless, when saving scores were computed, differences were significant. These saving score results seem to demonstrate a preoperative overtraining effect. It is suggested that overtraining before surgery produces a shift of function in the brain, and this shift is related to the development of long-term memory.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Delayed response, preoperative overtraining, and prefrontal lesions in the rat.

An earlier study in this laboratory found that preoperative overtraining improved retention of a delayed alternation task after prefrontal lesions in the rat. In this study, however, it was found that preoperative overtraining did not improve performance of the rat in a delayed response task following prefrontal lesions. These results support the hypothesis that preoperative overtraining can improve postoperative performance only when postoperative recovery is ordinarily present, as it is with delayed alternation. but not with delayed response, in the prefrontal rat. This suggests that effects of preoperative overtraining and postoperative recovery may be mediated by similar mechanisms. It further suggests that a shift of function, which seems to account for postoperative recovery, may occur in some parts of the normal adult brain as a result of overtraining.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

A further analysis of the response suppression during stimulation of the septal area in the rat.

It was found that during low-frequency electrical stimulation of either the septal medial or lateral nucleus suppression of an operant response can occur without a stimulation-induced reward or aversion effect. Further, the behavior of rats during response suppression appeared to be the same as when they stopped responding without stimulation. These observations suggest that response suppression to low-frequency stimulation of the septal area is not due to production of some disruptive factor. In addition, as reported earlier with low-frequency stimulation of the prefrontal cortex, stimulation of the septal area produces the strongest suppression of learned or unlearned responses that require the greatest effort. These data, along with the anatomical relationship between the septal area and the prefrontal cortex, are consistent with the hypothesis that the inhibitory influence of the septal area is mediated at least in part by way of the prefrontal cortex.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Prefrontal cortex and bulbar reticular formation and behavioral inhibition in the rat.

Electrical stimulation in the bulbar reticular formation will produce response suppression that is observably the same as that produced by stimulation in the prefrontal cortex. This includes suppression of bar-pressing for food and running in an activity wheel, but no suppression of approach and eating of food or general activity. These results, together with previous research, support the hypothesis that this inhibitory influence of the prefrontal cortex is mediated through the bulbar reticular formation. This hypothesis is not incompatible with the concept that the prefrontal cortex serves to suppress the activating influence of the rostral reticular formation.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Frontal cortex and response suppression in the rat.

Parts of the rat's neocortex were mapped for sites where electrical stimulation, square waves at 10/sec, will suppress a bar-press response for food. Effective sites were found in the frontal pole and over most of the frontal dorsolateral cortex. Within these regions the strongest inhibitory influences were at sites in the frontal pole and adjacent frontal cortex, and at sites along the midline. These data generally agree with results of previous cortical ablation studies, but they suggest that inhibitory processes are more widespread in the dorsolateral cortex than these studies indicated.

Animals↗