Avoidance learning in autoimmune mice

Previous studies have shown that autoimmune mice perform very poorly on act ive avoidance learning tasks. In the current studies, mice with lupus-like systemic autoimmunity were able to learn active, as well as passive, avoida nce protocols with shock as reinforcement. Therefore, the behavioral defici ts seen in active avoidance tasks are not a consequence of the use of elect ric shock. Rather, the current findings suggest that the inability of autoi mmune mice to learn shock motivated responding is due to multiple performan ce factors, including shock level and properties of the testing apparatus. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.