The effects of selective hippocampal damage on tests of oddity in rhesus macaques.
The oddity task (e.g., A-, A-, B+) is classified as a conjunctive or relational task in which accurate performance depends upon learning to attend to stimulus relationships, not stimulus identity, and has no retention component as stimuli are presented simultaneously. It has been suggested that the hippocampus may play a particular role in learning this type of task in humans and animals. To test this, we trained adult rhesus macaques with selective neurotoxic damage to the hippocampal formation on their ability to learn and apply an oddity rule. The results suggest that the monkeys were able to adapt simple strategies to solve variations of the oddity task, however as the opportunity for such strategies was reduced, monkeys with hippocampal damage were increasingly impaired.
Alvarado
Maria C
MC
Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. malvara@emory.edu
Kazama
Andy
A
Zeamer
Alyson
A
Bachevalier
Jocelyne
J
D000818:Animals; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007051:Ibotenic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology
D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D007051:Ibotenic Acid