Actualization of Existing Experience and Features of Subsequent Learning

Abstract

The article presents data on the study of neurogenetic changes in the rat brain and the features of performing various behavioral acts during acquisition of a food-acquisition skill, depending on the actualization of the previously acquired skill. The experiments involved 13 animals who were successively trained in the following behaviors: new context in the open field test, new objects in the object preference test, drinking behavior using a vibrissal pad, and food-acquisition behavior of pressing the pedal. It turned out that the nature of motor activity and the severity of neurogenetic changes during learning a new skill in individuals who immediately before this training occurred short-term actualization of the experience formed at one of the previous stages of training, significantly differed from the same parameters in individuals who did not have such actualization. It is suggested that the actualization of previously formed experience before new training contributes to the formation of a new component of experience, but not in the sense of accelerating the formation of new behavior, but in the aspect of increasing the number of active neurons that change the expression of their genes.