Cognitive mapping in rats: The role of the hippocampal and frontal systems in retention and reversal

doi:10.1016/0166-4328(81)90025-5

Behavioural Brain Research

Volume 3, Issue 1, July 1981, Pages 1-22

https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-4328(81)90025-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

These experiments determined the extent to which the hippocampal system and the medial frontal cortex are selectively involved in cognitive mapping in spatial environments.

Rats were trained to discriminate between two 3-dimensional objects based on either the location of the objects in the test environment, or on the stimulus characteristics of the objects themselves. Following the acquisition of one of these discrimination tasks, each rat was given a series of transfer tests to determine the extent to which a cognitive mapping strategy had been used to solve the task. Each rat was then given a lesion in the fimbria-fornix or the medial frontal cortex, or a control operation. In the location discrimination, rats with fimbria-fornix lesions, as compared to control rats: (a) performed poorly at the beginning of retention testing; (b) relearned the task to criterion performance; (c) performed normally during the transfer tests indicating that they used a cognitive mapping strategy, and (d) performed poorly in the discrimination reversals. In the object discrimination, these rats performed as well as controls during retention and transfer tests, but had a slight impairment during discrimination reversals. The performance of rats with lesions in the medial frontal cortex was worse than that of the controls during the retention of both discriminations, and during the reversal of the location, but not the object discrimination. These results are related to predictions of current theories implicating the hippocampus and medial frontal cortex in spatially organized behaviors, particularly those behaviors requiring cognitive mapping.

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^☆: These data were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, November. 1979 (Neurosci. Abstr., 5 (1979)).

^∗∗: Present address for correspondence: Suite M-905, Boston University School of Medicine. 85 East Newton Street, Boston, Mass. 02118, U.S.A.

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Research paperCognitive mapping in rats: The role of the hippocampal and frontal systems in retention and reversal☆

Abstract

Physiol. Behav.

Behav. Biol.

Exp. Neurol.

Behav. Biol.

Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Brain Res.

Behav. Biol.

Behav. Biol.

Brain Res.

Exp. Neurol.

Neuropsychologia

Physiol. Behav.

Neuropsychologia

Neuroanatomical bases of spatial memory

Brain Res.

Hippocampal function in avoidance learning and punishment

Psychol. Bull.

Commissural connections of the hippocampal region in the rat with special reference to their mode of termination

J. comp. Neurol.

The hippocampus, conditional operations, and cognition

Physiol. Psychol.

Studies of working memory in the pigeon

Selective hippocampal lesions and behavior

Physiol. Psychol.

Hippocampectomy and response perseveration in the rat

J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

Research paper
Cognitive mapping in rats: The role of the hippocampal and frontal systems in retention and reversal☆