The disadvantages of our experimental paradigm are
the asymmetric initial choice to assign the stimulus as
either CS or DS (initial response to the CS in the trained
neuron was larger than the response to the DS:
Fig. 8b,c), initial assignment of a neuron as trained or
control neuron (initial response to the CS of the trained
neuron was smaller than response of the control neuron:
Fig. 8b) and initial choice of whether the experiment
would consist of classical or instrumental conditioning
(in the case of instrumental conditioning the initial response of the trained neuron to the CS was smaller:
Fig. 8b). We were compelled to choose such initial
conditions in order to complete an experiments during
4–6 h, beyond which one can expect alteration of cellular excitability. Nevertheless, our results were not influenced by the asymmetric initial conditions. Thus,
when the initial response to the CS in the trained neuron
was larger, acquisition of the instrumental conditioning
was retarded but did not differ qualitatively (Tsitolovsky
& Shvedov, 1998). Decrease of an initial response to the
CS during classical conditioning also did not qualitatively change the dynamics of acquisition (Tsitolovsky &
Babkina, 1988)