The backward conditioned connections in the functional organization of the integrative behavior

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Abstract

The present paper describes backward conditioned connections (BCC) as a universal principle of brain activity. The first section analyzes the historical view of the problem: the discovery of the phenomenon of BCC, the rules and regularities of its manifestation (the role of the ratio of the strength of the paired stimuli, the duration of the conditioned stimulus, the time following after the unconditioned stimulus before the start of the conditioned stimulus, the number of pairings, and other factors). In the second section, some hypotheses explaining the formation, functioning, and role of bilateral conditioned connections in the process of organizing holistic behavior are considered. And the last section describes the current state of the problem of reverse US-CS connections – the study of 2nd-order conditioned reflexes, sensory preconditioning, stimulus equivalence analysis, and the role of context. The importance of dopamine in BCC and the role of these connections in memory reconsolidation are considered. Attention is paid to modern neurochemical, electrophysiological, optogenetic and other studies of the BCC.

About the authors

P. M. Balaban

Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: pmbalaban@gmail.com
Moscow, Russia

G. A. Grigoryan

Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of RAS

Email: grigorygrigoryan@hotmail.com
Moscow, Russia

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