title: Inactivation of dorsolateral striatum impairs acquisition of response learning in cue-deficient, but not cue-available, conditions.
abstract: Rats received bilateral injections of lidocaine or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) into the doisolateral striatum 6 min prior to training in either a plus- or T-shaped maze under cue-poor or cue-available conditions. Lidocaine injections significantly impaired acquisition in the cue-poor environments, but not in the cue-available environments. In addition, aCSF control rats trained in a plus-maze in a cue-poor environment reached criterion much more rapidly than did rats trained in a cue-available environment. These findings suggest that cue availability can permit acquisition of response learning in a manner that is not dependent on activity of the striatum. However, in a cue-poor environment, alternate strategies may be less readily available, revealing more efficient striatal involvement in response learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D004777:Environment; D007267:Injections; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D008012:Lidocaine