Unilateral fimbria/fornix lesions attenuate behavioral symptoms induced by subsequent dorsal hippocampal lesions in rats.
Adult rats were given a unilateral fimbria-fornix (5, 10, 15 micrograms colchicine or electrolytic) lesion 30 days before a restricted bilateral dorsal hippocampal lesion to assess the behavioral effects of temporally and structurally spaced lesions. The rats were tested 30 days after the second-stage surgery in the Hebb-Williams maze learning task. All rats with lesions were impaired in comparison with sham-operated control rats. However, those which sustained electrolytic or 5 micrograms colchicine fimbria-fornix lesions before hippocampal lesions were less impaired than rats which received hippocampal lesions alone or hippocampal lesions preceded by fimbria-fornix lesions with larger doses of colchicine.