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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

Effects of extended electrical kindling on exploratory behavior and spatial learning.

Short-term electrical kindling, a widely used experimental model of epilepsy, appears to have little effect on behavior. The effects of extended kindling are largely unknown. Rats implanted with kindling electrodes in amygdala (AM) or perforant path (PP) received 300 kindling trials over approximately 7 months, and were tested in the Morris watermaze after a 7-10 day recovery period. Kindled animals were impaired during the initial training on hidden-platform acquisition, but not in retention of platform location. No deficits were found in acquiring a new hidden-platform location, latency to reach a visible-platform, or in swim speed. Open-field activity showed a sustained increase when tested during kindling, but only a transient increase when tested following suspension of kindling. Similar results were obtained for both AM and PP kindled animals. Hence, long-term kindling of both of these sites produced behavioral changes that were transient in nature. Further, these results also indicate that propagation of seizure activity from remote sites can alter hippocampally-mediated or related behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Dissociation of the contributions of the prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial thalamic nucleus to spatially guided behavior in the rat.

Rats with lesions of the medial frontal cortex or dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus (MD) were studied in two spatial localization tasks: the Morris water task and the 8-arm radial arm maze. Rats with medial frontal lesions failed to learn to swim from different locations to a hidden platform located at a specific place in a large tank (Morris task) and were impaired at learning the location of reward in the radial arm maze. Rats with MD lesions were not impaired at spatial orientation in either task. The results provide the first unequivocal evidence of a spatial orientation deficit following frontal lesions and lend support to the notion that the frontal cortex forms part of a 'spatial mapping system'. The results suggest that although MD is the major afferent to the frontal cortex, it does not provide necessary spatially-relevant input.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1996

Telencephalic afferents to the caudolateral neostriatum of the pigeon.

The pigeon caudolateral neostriatum (NCL) shares a dopaminergic innervation with mammalian frontal cortical areas and is implicated in the regulation of avian cognitive behavior. Retrograde tracing methods were used to identify forebrain projections to NCL and to suggest a possible role of this area in mediating spatial behavior. NCL receives telencephalic projections from the hyperstriatum accessorium, cells along the border of hyperstriatum dorsale and hyperstriatum ventrale, anterolateral hyperstriatum adjacent to the vallecula, confined cell groups within the anterior neostriatum, and subdivisions of the archistriatum. In addition, labeling of a small number of large cells near the fasciculus prosencephali lateralis was observed at the level of the anterior commissure. In accordance with previous studies, projections of subtelencephalic areas were revealed to originate from the thalamic posterior dorsolateral nucleus and nucleus subrotundus, as well as from the tegmental nucleus pedunculopontinus and locus coeruleus. Forebrain connections of NCL show that somatosensory, visual, and olfactory information can combine in this division of the neostriatum. NCL is therefore suited to participate in a neural circuit that regulates spatial behavior. Moreover, the present study reveals that NCL is reached by a limbic projection from the nucleus taeniae. This projection also suggests similarity between NCL and mammalian frontal cortical areas.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1997

Uninformative symbolic cues may bias visual-spatial attention: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

Event-related brain potentials and response latencies were measured in an experiment where centrally presented arrow cues were followed by left or right visual target stimuli. In one condition, target location was indicated by the cues with 75% validity. In another condition, the precues were uninformative with respect to target location. Faster response times and larger negativities in the ERPs at midline electrodes were measured for targets at cued locations following informative cues, but also with uninformative precues. This indicates that visual-spatial attention may be biased involuntarily by central symbolic precues.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Altered activity, social behavior, and spatial memory in mice lacking the NTAN1p amidase and the asparagine branch of the N-end rule pathway.

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. N-terminal asparagine and glutamine are tertiary destabilizing residues, in that they are enzymatically deamidated to yield secondary destabilizing residues aspartate and glutamate, which are conjugated to arginine, a primary destabilizing residue. N-terminal arginine of a substrate protein is bound by the Ubr1-encoded E3alpha, the E3 component of the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent N-end rule pathway. We describe the construction and analysis of mouse strains lacking the asparagine-specific N-terminal amidase (Nt(N)-amidase), encoded by the Ntan1 gene. In wild-type embryos, Ntan1 was strongly expressed in the branchial arches and in the tail and limb buds. The Ntan1(-/-) mouse strains lacked the Nt(N)-amidase activity but retained glutamine-specific Nt(Q)-amidase, indicating that the two enzymes are encoded by different genes. Among the normally short-lived N-end rule substrates, only those bearing N-terminal asparagine became long-lived in Ntan1(-/-) fibroblasts. The Ntan1(-/-) mice were fertile and outwardly normal but differed from their congenic wild-type counterparts in spontaneous activity, spatial memory, and a socially conditioned exploratory phenotype that has not been previously described with other mouse strains.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed2005

Study of CA1 place cell activity and exploratory behavior following spatial and nonspatial changes in the environment.

Changes in the spatial arrangement or identity of objects inside a familiar environment induce reexploration. The present study looks at modifications of place cell activity during such renewed exploration. Hungry rats foraged for food in a cylinder with a salient cue card attached to the wall and with two distinct objects at fixed positions on the floor relative to each other and to the cue card. Once a set of CA1 place cells was recorded in this standard configuration, additional sessions were done after two kinds of manipulation. In the first, the two objects were rotated as a rigid set 90 degrees counterclockwise around the cylinder center while leaving the cue card in place; this was considered a spatial change. The effects of rotating the objects were different for fields near the objects (near fields) and fields far from the objects (far fields). Object rotation altered most near fields in complex ways, including remapping and cessation of firing. Near fields that remained intact after object rotation underwent unpredictable rotations that frequently departed considerably from the expected value of 90 degrees CCW. In contrast, the only change induced in far fields was a reduction of discharge rate on day 1, but not day 2, exposures of the rat to the rotated objects. The effects on both near and far fields were reversed when the objects were returned to their standard position. In the second manipulation, substitution of one of the two familiar objects with a novel object, a nonspatial change, had no detectable effect on place cell activity, regardless of field location. The sensitivity of hippocampal place cells to spatial changes but not to nonspatial changes is in agreement with earlier results showing that hippocampal lesions abolish reexploration after spatial but not after nonspatial object manipulations. The fact that reexploration is accompanied by place cell changes after spatial but not nonspatial changes reinforces the role that the hippocampus is believed to play in navigational computing and is perfectly compatible with the idea that another brain structure, likely perirhinal cortex, is responsible for object recognition.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1990

Effects of medial septal lesions on operant delayed alternation in rats.

The septohippocampal system regulates spatial behavior, memory and response flexibility. This experiment determined which of these functions is disrupted by medial septal lesions which impair operant delayed alternation in rats. Male hooded rats received either medial septal lesions or a control operation. Following recovery, they were reinforced for alternating left and right lever presses in an operant chamber. The effects of various delays (0, 10 and 20 s), and exteroceptive cues were assessed. Medial septal lesions did not impair alternation performance at the 0-s delay, but did produce severe impairments at the 10- and 20-s delays. An exteroceptive light cue which reduced the spatial requirements of the task did not ameliorate this impairment. However, an exteroceptive light cue which reduced the working-memory requirements of the task did ameliorate the lesion-induced deficit on delayed alternation. While the lesioned rats also made more perseverative errors than the controls, statistically removing this influence from the data did not modify the results. These data suggest that medial septal lesions in rats impair operant delayed alternation by disrupting the general process of working-memory rather than spatial behavior or response flexibility.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Low-level lifetime lead exposure produces behavioral toxicity (spatial discrimination reversal) in adult monkeys.

Cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were dosed from birth with 0, 50, or 100 micrograms/kg/day of lead. This regimen resulted in blood lead concentrations of 3, 15, or 25 micrograms/dl, respectively, before withdrawal of infant formula at 200 days of age. Blood lead concentration declined thereafter over the next 100 to 150 days to steady-state concentrations of 3, 11, or 13 micrograms/dl. At 9 to 10 years of age, these monkeys were tested on a series of spatial discrimination reversal problems. The monkey was required to respond on the right-most of two push buttons in order to receive a fruit-juice reward. When the task was learned, the left-most button became correct for a total of 15 such reversals on each of three tasks. The stimuli for the first task included no irrelevant cues, the second task included irrelevant form cues, and the third task included irrelevant form and color cues. Treated monkeys were impaired relative to controls in the presence but not in the absence of irrelevant cues. Moreover, the lower dose group was impaired only during the first task after the introduction of irrelevant stimuli, but not after irrelevant stimuli were familiar. These findings represent behavioral impairment in adult monkeys as a result of lifetime lead exposure resulting in blood lead concentrations that are typical for humans in industrialized environments.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Role of glutamate receptors in nucleus accumbens core and shell in spatial behaviour of rats.

The nucleus accumbens (NAC) is considered to be an important neural interface between corticolimbic and motor systems of the brain. Several studies have shown that the NAC is not only involved in motivation and reward-related processes but also in spatial behavior. We here investigated the involvement of different glutamate receptor subclasses within NAC core and shell subregions on behavior in a radial-maze. Rats were first trained in a four-arm-baited eight-arm radial maze task for baseline performance. Thereafter, the effects of microinjection of the nonselective glutamate receptor antagonist kynurenic acid (4.5 microg), the NMDA receptor antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (1 microg) and the non-NMDA receptor antagonist 6,7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (0.75 microg) in NAC core and shell were tested on reference memory errors (RME) and working memory errors (WME). Moreover, the choice pattern of entries and duration of arm-entries were evaluated. Microinjection of all drugs increased RME. Additionally, non-NMDA receptor blockade in NAC shell but not core increased WME. After microinjection of all drugs into NAC core and shell rats preferentially choose the arms next to the previously visited arm. This work shows that glutamate receptors in both NAC subregions are important for spatial behavior. The deficits seen after glutamate receptor blockade may not be working- or reference memory-related but caused by a switch from a memory-dependent allocentric strategy to an egocentric response strategy.

2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate↗
PubMed1995

Excitatory amino acid receptors within nucleus accumbens subregions differentially mediate spatial learning in the rat.

The present experiments investigated the effects of excitatory amino acid antagonists, infused into core and shell subregions of the nucleus accumbens, on spatial behavior in the rat. A food-search task was used, in which animals learn a specific pattern of food gathering; duration of each trial (time taken to gather all four pellets) and number of errors (visits to empty holes) were measured. In experiment 1, animals first underwent training, and subsequently were given microinfusions of either D-2-amino-5 phosphonopentanoic acid (AP-5), an N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist (0, 0.2, 1.0µg/0.5µl), or 6,7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (DNQX), an antagonist of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) and kainate receptors (0, 0.075, 0.75µg/0.5µl). AP-5-significantly increased trial duration in both core and shell groups, but increased errors only in the core group. DNQX treatment also impaired performance in both groups, but the effect was greater in the core group compared with the shell group. In experiment 2, animals were treated during acquisition. Rats infused with AP-5 (1µg/0.5µl) took significantly longer to finish trials, made more errors and showed a marked learning impairment across days. AP-5 impaired learning in both core and shell groups, but the disruption was significantly greater in the core group. DNQX (0.75µg/0.5µl) also impaired learning when infused into the core during acquisition; however, the pattern of disruption contrasted markedly with that of AP-5. DNQX in the shell had no effect on trial duration during learning. It is hypothesized that both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors in the nucleus accumbens mediate spatial learning and performance, and that NMDA receptors may have a relatively more important role in memory or retrieval mechanisms. Moreover, the core subregion may be preferentially involved in the control of spatial behavior.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Visual and mental exploration of visuo-spatial configurations: behavioral and neuroimaging approaches.

Do mental imagery and perception involve common processing mechanisms? Imagery researchers have devoted a great deal of effort to establishing the functional and structural similarities between images and perceptual events. Recent studies have focused on the comparison of images that are reconstructions of previous perceptual experience and images constructed from verbal descriptions. This article reports the findings of a research program based on the mental scanning paradigm; they reveal the similarities and differences between the two kinds of mental images. Neuroimaging studies have also provided evidence that the parieto-occipital cortex is involved in the processing of visual images, whether they are based on perceptual experience or constructed from linguistic inputs. However, the PET studies conducted by our research groups provide no evidence that the primary visual cortex is engaged in the generation of visual images. As there is contradictory evidence about this, further research is needed to clarify the role of the early visual areas in mental visual imagery.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1988

Common cortical and subcortical targets of the dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices in the rhesus monkey: evidence for a distributed neural network subserving spatially guided behavior.

Common efferent projections of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex were examined in 3 rhesus monkeys by placing injections of tritiated amino acids and HRP in frontal and parietal cortices, respectively, of the same hemisphere. Terminal labeling originating from both frontal and parietal injection sites was found to be in apposition in 15 ipsilateral cortical areas: the supplementary motor cortex, the dorsal premotor cortex, the ventral premotor cortex, the anterior arcuate cortex (including the frontal eye fields), the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, the frontoparietal operculum, the insular cortex, the medial parietal cortex, the superior temporal cortex, the parahippocampal gyrus, the presubiculum, the caudomedial lobule, and the medial prestriate cortex. Convergent terminal labeling was observed in the contralateral hemisphere as well, most prominently in the principal sulcal cortex, the superior arcuate cortex, and the superior temporal cortex. In certain common target areas, as for example the cingulate cortices, frontal and parietal efferents terminate in an array of interdigitating columns, an arrangement much like that observed for callosal and associational projections to the principal sulcus (Goldman-Rakic and Schwartz, 1982). In other areas, frontal and parietal terminals exhibit a laminar complementarity: in the depths of the superior temporal sulcus, prefrontal terminals are densely distributed within laminae I, III, and V, whereas parietal terminals occupy mainly laminae IV and VI directly below the prefrontal bands. Subcortical structures also receive apposing or overlapping projections from both prefrontal and parietal cortices. The dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices project to adjacent, longitudinal domains of the neostriatum, as has been described previously (Selemon and Goldman-Rakic, 1985); these projections are also found in close apposition in the claustrum, the amygdala, the caudomedial lobule, and throughout the anterior medial, medial dorsal, lateral dorsal, and medial pulvinar nuclei of the thalamus. In the brain stem, both areas of association cortex project to the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus and to the midline reticular formation of the pons.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗