title: Extensive cytotoxic lesions involving both the rhinal cortices and area TE impair recognition but spare spatial alternation in the rat.
abstract: Rats with cytotoxic lesions of the perirhinal, postrhinal, and TE cortices (Rh+TE, n = 7) were compared with surgical control animals (n = 7) on a series of spontaneous object recognition tests. The Rh+TE group was associated with a failure to select the novel object. This recognition deficit contrasted with the apparently normal ability of the same animals to learn and perform a spatial working memory test (T-maze alternation). The animals were also tested on the acquisition of an automated visual discrimination task in which the stimuli were presented on a visual display unit (VDU) equipped with a touch screen. The animals with Rh+TE lesions showed only a borderline deficit on this task. These findings are consistent with other evidence implicating the rhinal region in recognition memory. More importantly, they also provide a dissociation between spatial working memory and object recognition and, hence, show that extensive rhinal lesions are not sufficient to disconnect the hippocampus functionally.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Aggleton
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keen
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Warburton
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bussey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats