Open-field and avoidance behavior after neostriatal lesions in male and female rats.
The behavioral effects of lesions of the anterodorsal or posteroventral parts of the caudate-putamen were studied in adult male and femle rats that were gonadectomized or left untreated prior to brain surgery. Anterodorsal (ADC) lesions consistently impaired acquistion of one-way avoidance behavior and tended to interfere with the development of a two-way avoidance response; comparable effects were observed in gonadectomized and intact animals of both sexes. By contrast, ADC lesions increased activity in the open field only in intact females and increased rearing only in ovariectomized females. Posteroventral caudate (PVC) lesions caused transient aphagia and adipsia in both sexes but did not consistently affect open-field activity or the acquistion of one-way avoidance responses by either sex. These lesions profoundly impaired acquistion of shuttle box avoidance responses by intact males. By contrast, castrated males and intact and ovariectomized females with PVC lesions avoided normally in the shuttle box. The present results suggest that localization of behavioral functions within the striatum differs with the sex of the subject, in part because of activational effects of gonadal hormones.
D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D002369:Castration; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D004327:Drinking Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D011699:Putamen / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012737:Sex Factors