title: Lesions of specific and nonspecific thalamic nuclei affect prefrontal cortex-dependent aspects of spatial working memory.
abstract: Three studies compared lesions of specific mediodorsal (MD) and nonspecific midline/intralaminar (M/IL) and ventromedial (VM) thalamic nuclei placed to spare the anterior nuclei. Lesions of MD, M/IL, or VM impaired delayed matching trained with retractable levers, a measure of spatial memory affected by prefrontal cortical lesions. The effects of the MD lesion increased at longer retention intervals and thus appeared delay dependent. The effects of M/IL and VM lesions were delay independent. Even when combined, these lesions had no effect on varying choice radial maze delayed nonmatching, a task sensitive to hippocampal or anterior thalamic (but not prefrontal) lesions. These results demonstrate effects of MD, M/IL, and VM lesions distinct from the contributions of hippocampus or anterior thalamus to spatial memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Mair
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013028:Space Perception; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology*