Literaturdatenbank
Literaturdatenbank |
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Lopez, J. C., Vargas, J. P., Gomez, Y., & Salas, C. (2003). Spatial and nonspatial learning in turtles: The role of the medial cortex. Behavioural Brain Research, 143, 109–120.
Added by: Admin (06 Jan 2014 18:22:57 UTC) |
| Resource type: Journal Article BibTeX citation key: Lopez2003 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Emydidae, Schildkröten - turtles + tortoises, Trachemys scripta, Verhalten - ethology Creators: Gomez, Lopez, Salas, Vargas Collection: Behavioural Brain Research |
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| Abstract |
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Trachemys scripta In mammals and birds, hippocampal processing is crucial for allocentric spatial learning. In these vertebrate groups, lesions to the hippocampal formation produce selective impairments in spatial tasks that require the encoding of relationships among environmental features, but not in tasks that require the approach to a single cue or simple non-spatial discriminations. In reptiles, a great deal of anatomical evidence indicates that the medial cortex (MC) could be homologous to the hippocampus of mammals and birds; however, few studies have examined the functional role of this structure in relation to learning and memory processes. The aim of this work was to study how the MC lesions affect spatial strategies. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the MC lesion impaired the performance in animals pre-operatively trained in a place task, and although these animals were able to learn the same task after surgery, probe test revealed that learning strategies used by MC lesioned turtles were different to that observed in sham animals. Experiment 2 showed that the MC lesion did not impair the retention of the pre-operatively learned task when a single intramaze visual cue identified the goal. These results suggest that the reptilian MC and hippocampus of mammals and birds function in quite similar ways, not only in relation to those spatial functions that are impaired, but also in relation to those learning processes that are not affected.
Added by: Admin |