Pavlov's Neurons: Brain Cells That Are A Key To Learning Discovered

Researchers have found individual neurons in the amygdalas of rat brains that are activated when the animals are given an associative learning task. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2008) — More than a century after Ivan Pavlov's dog was conditioned to salivate when it heard the sound of a tone prior to receiving food, scientists have found neurons that are critical to how people and animals learn from experience.

Using a new imaging technique called Arc catFISH, researchers from the University of Washington have visualized individual neurons in the amygdalas of rat brains that are activated when the animals are given an associative learning task.

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