Impaired water maze navigation of Wistar rats with retrosplenial cortex lesions: effect of nonspatial pretraining

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2005

Authors

Lukoyanov, NV (Author) FMUP; Lukoyanova, EA (Author) Other; Andrade, JP (Author) FMUP; Paula Barbosa, MM (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Behavioural Brain Research

Vol. 158

Pages: 175-182

ISSN: 0166-4328

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 28 Citations

Scopus - 28 Citations

Pubmed / Medline - Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-49F

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.204.08.023

Abstract (EN): Damage to the retrosplenial cortex (RC) impairs the performance of rodents on spatial learning and memory tasks, but the extent of these deficits was previously reported to be influenced by the lesion type, rat strain, and behavioral task used. The present study addressed the issue of whether or not cytotoxic damage to RC impairs place navigation of Wistar rats in the Morris water maze and, if so, whether this is merely attributable to spatial learning deficits or to impaired learning of general (nonspatial) behavioral strategies required to correctly perform this task or both. Behaviorally naive rats with bilateral lesions to RC were significantly impaired relative to sham-lesioned rats both during the period of initial learning of the task and during the later phases of training. In addition, these animals showed enhanced thigmotaxis, indicating that the lesion was associated with considerable abnormalities in nonspatial learning. In contrast, RC-lesioned animals that have been previously familiarized with general task rules in a series of shaping trials did not show more thigmotaxis than did their respective controls. Furthermore, although these rats were still impaired in the middle of the training process, their performance during the period of initial learning as well as by the end of training was found to now be normal. Our results confirm those of earlier studies indicating that RC is important for spatial navigation. The findings herein reported are also consistent with the notion that, in addition to spatial information processing, RC is involved in cognitive processes underlying the ability of subjects to properly respond to general task demands.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8