title: Dorsal striatal lesions in rats. 1: Effects on exploration and motor coordination.
abstract: Rats with small dorsal striatal lesions were compared to sham-operated controls in a series of test measuring their exploratory behavior in a T-maze, a hole-board, and an elevated plus-maze. Motor coordination was evaluated in the inclined grid and in the square bridge tests and grip strength in the wire suspension test. The rats with dorsal striatal lesions were not impaired in the motor coordination tests, the grip strength test, nor in spontaneous alternation. By contrast, an increase of emergence latencies in the elevated plus-maze and a reduction of motor activity in the hole-board confined space during the early part of testing were observed in rats with dorsal striatal lesions. These results are ascribed to a lesion-induced situation-specific increase in inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Université de Nancy 1, Laboratoire de Biologie et Physiologie du Comportement, URA CNRS 1293, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France. thullier@scbiol. u-nancy.fr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thullier
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lalonde
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mahler
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Joyal
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lestienne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar