Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats

Jones, P.M.; Pearce, J.M.; Davies, V.J.; Good, M.A.; McGregor, A.

Abstract

Hippocampal damage impairs navigation with respect to information provided by the shape of an arena. Recent evidence has suggested that normal rats use local geometric information, as opposed to a global geometric representation, to navigate to a correct corner. One implication of this pattern of results is that hippocampal lesions may impair processing of 1 or more of the local geometric features of an environment. The authors therefore investigated the effects of hippocampal cell loss in rats on navigation to a hidden goal with respect to a variety of local cues in an environment with a distinctive shape. Rats with lesions of the hippocampus were impaired in discriminating a right-angled corner from its mirror image. However, they were able to use cues provided by an acute-angled corner (Experiment 1) or a local polarizing cue (Experiment 2). In contrast, lesioned rats were impaired in discriminating long versus short walls (Experiment 3). Results indicate that the hippocampus plays a role in disambiguating locations by processing (metric) information related to the distance between corners.

Citation

Jones, P., Pearce, J., Davies, V., Good, M., & McGregor, A. (2007). Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121(6), 1258-1271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1258

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2007
• Deposit Date: Jan 26, 2009
• Journal: Behavioral Neuroscience
• Print ISSN: 0735-7044
• Electronic ISSN: 1939-0084
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 121
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1258-1271
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1258
• Keywords: Spatial learning, Water maze, Geometry, Hippocampus, Navigation.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1531939