title: Stimulus specific deficit on visual reversal learning after lesions of medial prefrontal cortex in the mouse.
abstract: Tests of executive abilities, such as discrimination reversal and attentional set shifting, are sensitive to prefrontal cortex (PFC) damage in primates. The purpose of the present study was to use a primate reversal task to determine if PFC in the mouse is involved in similar cognitive functions. Mice with lesions of medial PFC and Sham operated control animals were trained on a series of visual problems in a computer-automated touchscreen apparatus using stimuli that varied in either pattern (lines) or luminance (black-white). PFC-lesioned mice learned to discriminate both sets of stimuli as readily as controls, but displayed a stimulus specific (pattern only) deficit on the reversal task. Analysis of error patterns on the line reversal suggests the deficit exhibited by PFC-lesioned mice was related to stimulus specific aspects of visual attention, rather than perseveration. These results demonstrate that medial PFC may play a role in control of directed attention and provide further evidence that the touchscreen procedure can be a useful tool for examining functional similarities in brain regions of very diverse species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The George Washington University, 2125 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA. brigmanj@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Brigman
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Rothblat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology*