title: A triple dissociation of memory systems: hippocampus, amygdala, and dorsal striatum.
abstract: This study investigated the respective roles of the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the dorsal striatum in learning and memory. A standard set of experimental conditions for studying the effects of lesions to the three brain areas using an 8-arm radial maze was used: a win-shift version, a conditioned cue preference (CCP) version, and a win-stay version. Damage to the hippocampal system impaired acquisition of the win-shift task but not the CCP or win-stay tasks. Damage to the lateral amygdala impaired acquisition of the CCP task but not the win-shift or win-stay tasks. Damage to the dorsal striatum impaired acquisition of the win-stay task but not the win-shift or CCP tasks. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the mammalian brain may be capable of acquiring different kinds of information with different, more-or-less independent neural systems. A neural system that includes the hippocampus may acquire information about the relationships among stimuli and events. A neural system that includes the amygdala may mediate the rapid acquisition of behaviors based on biologically significant events with affective properties. A neural system that includes the dorsal striatum may mediate the formation of reinforced stimulus-response associations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009042:Motivation; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*