The influence of the initial reinforcement value on physiological parameters of conditioned respiratory reflex

BACKGROUND: Most of the studies of the role of reinforcement in the formation of adaptive behavior were performed on animals. At the same time, such an experimental model as a conditioned respiratory reflex to resistive load, has not been sufficiently studied, although an unconditioned reflex to additional resistance to breathing, on the basis of which a conditioned one is formed, is a stable reaction that has clear quantitative evaluation criteria, and the conditioned reflex itself is relatively strong, easily normalized, reluctantly extinguished and does not require observance of a number of methodological conditions. AIM: To study the influence of the initial value of reinforcement on the physiological parameters of the conditioned respiratory reflex. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The work was carried out on people of both genders, 16 people, aged 18 to 44, practically healthy. The unconditioned stimulus was applied in four gradations of external respiratory resistance: 11; 28; 54; 76 cm water • l/sec. The conditioned reflex was formed by the classic type, the duration of application of the conditioned stimulus was not fixed and its end coincided with the end of the action of the unconditioned stimulus, the period of the isolated action of the conditioned signal was 10 sec. As physiological parameters, we studied the ventilatory and motor parameters of respiration, the temporal parameters of the conditioned reaction. RESULTS: The influence of the unconditioned stimulus on the value of the tidal volume after the combination in all subjects depended on the absolute reinforcement values used in this combination, and was weakly connected with the initial reinforcement value. The influence of the external resistance on breathing used in this combination was significantly higher on such parameters as intraoral pressure of inspiration and expiration; the role of the initial reinforcement value in the dynamics of the given parameters was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: Most “sensitive” to the action of the initial value of the resistive load were the temporal parameters of the conditioned respiratory reflex — the latent period and the time of the conditioned reaction; the parameters of the “ventilatory” and “motor” outputs of the external respiration system changed noticeably, the spirometric parameters showed very little dynamics, and the capnographic parameters practically did not change. The dynamics of the parameters of the conditioned respiratory reflex to increased external respiratory resistance permits to single out groups of signs that have the greatest semantic significance for evaluation of the system-forming and discriminating role of the initial gradation of the reinforcement factor.