title: Excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus leave sensory preconditioning intact: implications for models of hippocampal function.
abstract: Learning about contextual cues is markedly disrupted in rats with hippocampal lesions. One analysis of this disruption is that it reflects a general failure to form associations between the elements of complex events. A straightforward prediction of this analysis is that sensory preconditioning will be disrupted by hippocampal lesions. This prediction was assessed by presenting rats with flavored solutions composed of 2 elements (A and X) before X was paired with an injection of the emetic, lithium chloride. A subsequent test revealed that rats were less willing to consume Solution A than they were to consume a control solution, B. This was true of rats with sham lesions and those with excitotoxic lesions of hippocampus. These findings fail to support the proposition that the hippocampus-dependent deficit in contextual conditioning is due to a general disruption to the process of associating the elements of complex events.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Wales. ward-robinsonj@cf.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ward-Robinson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coutureau
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Good
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Honey
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Killcross
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Oswald
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D051381:Rats; D013649:Taste