title: Avoidance learning in rats devoid of the telencephalon plus thalamus.
abstract: Two experiments were undertaken to investigate whether learning of an inhibitory avoidance response is possible in rats devoid of the whole forebrain, except for the hypothalamus. In experiment I all telencephalic structures were surgically ablated. Twenty-four hours later the rats were given a learning trial in the up-hill avoidance task. When tested 2 h later, the animals given a tail-shock contingent on the up-hill response showed significant increases in step-up latencies in comparison with control groups that had received non-contingent shock or no shock. In experiment II the thalamus was removed in addition to the telencephalon. As in experiment I, the animals received either tail-shock contingent on the up-hill reaction, no tail-shock, or non-contingent shock. When tested 2 and 24 h after the training, the animals that had received response-contingent shock showed significant increases in latencies to ascend the platform. These results indicate that inhibitory avoidance conditioning is still possible in rats devoid of the telencephalon plus thalamus.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011930:Reaction Time; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000502:physiology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*