This is a graded discussion:40 points possible

Module 4: Weekly Assignment #4 "Brain Rhythms and Conditioning" - Group 1: 85406

A growing body of evidence suggests that oscillating waves of synchronized electrical activity in the hippocampus are necessary for the storage of new information. Neuroscientists believe that these waves, called theta waves, represent a “ready state” for learning. When the hippocampus is in a theta state, waves of synchronized neural firing travel back and forth across the hippocampus, about seven times a second (Buzsáki, 2002), as seen on the left side of Figure 4.21 on p. 160 of your textbook.

I ask you to read the information provided in Chapter 4 of your textbook and watch the following videos:

2-Minute Neuroscience: The Hippocampus(Links to an external site.)

Fred Kavli Keynote Address--2020: The Brain Inside Out by György Buzsáki(Links to an external site.)

Please, discuss the topic of the brain rhythms in conditioning by answering the following questions (as always, do your research and use in-text citations and references):

• What are the two fundamentally different and antagonistic patterns that characterize network activity in the hippocampus?


• What type of oscillations are associated with exploration and REM sleep?


• What type of oscillations are present during more sedentary behaviors such as eating, drinking, and slow-wave sleep?


• Who and when provided early evidence for the role of theta waves in learning? Briefly describe the study and its results.


• Who have presented more recently extended the earlier findings demonstrating the role of theta waves in learning? Briefly describe the experiment and its results.


• Why does the theta rhythm enhance learning? Use the findings by Gyorgy Buzsáki and other experts to explain possible reasons for this observed phenomenon.


• What do we know and what don't we still know about the theta rhythms enabling the hippocampus to store new information and, in doing so, facilitate classical conditioning and other forms of learning?


• Imagine that your professor could monitor your hippocampal theta waves. How this would contribute to your learning experience and learning outcomes?


• What are possible ways for you to learn twice as much in a day as you do now (review the example of the theta-triggered rabbits)?


• What was one thing that you learned while working on this discussion that interested you the most?


• What is your one take-away message from this discussion?