I am looking to dissociate the functional role of the hippocampus and Striatum in humans and am currently searching for potential tasks that have been used in previous studies. I am particularly interested in the dissociation of stimulus response and action outcome learning.
Thank you very much for your help.
One way to examine stimulus-response versus action-outcome learning is to vary the amount of 'training' you give to the participants. In the animal literature, it is well-known that over-training a rat on a variable ratio schedule will create a shift from what initially looks like action-outcome behavior to stimulus-response behavior (Adams, 1982). However, keep in mind that it is not merely that extensive training produces a shift from action-outcome to stimulus-response. As Dickinson (1985) pointed out, the reason why over-training produces a shift to stimulus-response behavior is because the animal no longer experiences a behavior-reward correlation.
I should point out, however, that the traditional way of testing for action-outcome learning in animals is done via devaluation procedures in which the animal experiences pairings of some aversive outcome with one of the previously rewarding outcomes (see readings for details). I'm not sure how an IRB would view such a procedure.
Adams, C.D. (1982). Variations in the sensitivity of instrumental responding to reinforcer devaluation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology., 34B, 77-98.
Dickinson, A. (1985). Actions and Habits: The Development of Behavioural Autonomy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 308(1135), 67–78.
Hi Eric,
thanks a lot for your introduction. The translation to human behaviour seems quite difficult.
Hi Eric - shameless self promotion here, but you may be interested in some work we have just published on action discovery and behavioural switching using a joystick task in rats.
Fisher, S.D., et al. A behavioral task for investigating action discovery, selection and switching: comparison between types of reinforcer. Front Behav Neurosci 8 (2014).
This is based on a paradigm used in humans:
Bednark, J.G., et al. Creating a movement heuristic for voluntary action: Electrophysiological correlates of movement-outcome learning. Cortex 49: 771-80 (2013).
Hope this is of interest.
Regards
John
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24341707
This is the review article that contains information and references of importance. Note that medial and lateral striatum are different in terms of anatomy, physiology, and behavioral function.
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