Does pretraining spare the spatial deficit associated with anterior thalamic damage in rats?
Rats that had been pretrained on 2 tests of allocentric memory (water maze and T maze) received bilateral cytotoxic lesions in the anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) or transection of the fimbria-fornix (FF). After surgery, both groups of rats were impaired on both tasks, although the preoperative training resulted in a rapid initial reacquisition of the water maze task. Those rats with lesions largely restricted to the ATN were impaired at a level comparable to that produced by FF lesions. This finding is consistent with a close functional relationship between the hippocampus and the ATN, necessary for the acquisition and on-line processing of allocentric spatial information but not for the maintenance/retrieval of procedural information. The rats with more extensive thalamic lesions were more impaired in both tasks and did show a loss of procedural information.
Warburton
E C
EC
School of Psychology, University of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. E.C.Warburton@bristol.ac.uk
Morgan
A
A
Baird
A L
AL
Muir
J L
JL
Aggleton
J P
JP
D000818:Animals; D020643:Anterior Thalamic Nuclei / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D020712:Fornix, Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D016202:N-Methylaspartate