title: Involvement of the prelimbic-infralimbic areas of the rodent prefrontal cortex in behavioral flexibility for place and response learning.
abstract: The present experiments investigated the role of the prelimbic-infralimbic areas in behavioral flexibility using a place-response learning paradigm. All rats received a bilateral cannula implant aimed at the prelimbic-infralimbic areas. To examine the role of the prelimbic-infralimbic areas in shifting strategies, rats were tested on a place and a response discrimination in a cross-maze. Some rats were tested on the place version first followed by the response version. The procedure for the other rats was reversed. Infusions of 2% tetracaine into the prelimbic-infralimbic areas did not impair acquisition of the place or response discriminations. Prelimbic-infralimbic inactivation did impair learning when rats were switched from one discrimination to the other (cross-modal shift). To investigate the role of the prelimbic-infralimbic areas in intramodal shifts (reversal learning), one group of rats was tested on a place reversal and another group tested on a response reversal. Prelimbic-infralimbic inactivation did not impair place or response intramodal shifts. Some rats that completed testing on a particular version in the cross-modal and intramodal experiments were tested on the same version in a new room for 3 d. The transfer tests revealed that rats use a spatial strategy on the place version and an egocentric response strategy on the response version. Overall, these results suggest that the prelimbic-infralimbic areas are important for behavioral flexibility involving cross-modal but not intramodal shifts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ragozzino
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Detrick
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Kesner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008032:Limbic System / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans