title: Exploratory behavior and reaction to novelty in rats: effects of medial and lateral septal lesions.
abstract: This study was carried out to investigate whether medial septal (MS) or lateral septal (LS) lesions may differentially affect rats' ability to react to novelty or environmental change. Three types of task were used based on various sets of stimuli: visual and tactile, olfactory only, and visual only. The results showed that MS and LS lesions reduced preference for novelty, with different effects. The MS group displayed decreased exploration of both neutral and novel objects, whereas the LS group exhibited increased exploration of the objects compared with the control group. A reduced level of locomotor and rearing activity was initially seen among the MS animals. These results were compared with previous findings of behavioral changes after regional hippocampal perforant path lesions in the same test as used in this study. The comparisons imply that disruption of setal input to the hippocampal formation produces cognitive deficits different from those seen after disruption of entorhinal input.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, Division for Environmental Toxicology, Kjeller.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Myhrer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012686:Septal Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology