Brain Electrophysiological Activity Correlates with Temporal Processing in Rats

In this study, we present electroencephalographic (EEG) recording data obtained in correlation with timing behavior in rats trained in a 30-s peak interval (PI) procedure. The distribution of lever press responses was found to be Gaussian, peaking at approximately 30s: lever pressing behavior increased for 30s then decreased after the reinforcement time. We recorded EEG activity in the hippocampus (hippocampal theta wave) and striatum during the task, and evaluated whether the EEG power correlated with the behavior pattern. We found that the striatum EEG, but not the hippocampal theta wave, showed a good correlation with the response pattern in the 30-s PI. This result suggests that striatum neurons fired more synchronously at the time of reinforcement, thus supporting a critical role for synchronization of firing of striatal neurons in regulating timing mechanisms. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Associative and Temporal Learning.