Linked Life Data

11006434

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/11006434

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3-4
pubmed:dateCreated
2000-11-7
pubmed:abstractText
Rats and other mammals can orient themselves in their habitat and locate various goals using different learning strategies. When a cartographic or local strategy is used, the animals construct and store in their long-term memories a complex representation of the extramaze space. However, exactly what constitutes the behaviorally key components of the extramaze space is still little known. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the shape of the environment that surrounds the animal is an informative factor when a cartographic strategy is used. Two experiments were performed in which the rats were trained to find food in the goal arm of a four-arm, plus-shaped maze. Experiment 1 shows that lesions to the hippocampus impair the acquisition of this task, which suggests that in fact, a cartographic strategy is necessary to solve it. In Experiment 2, in which only one group of neurologically intact rats was used, we directly manipulated the shape of the space around the maze. The results showed that once the animals have learned the task, the hiding of all the extramaze single landmarks while keeping intact the general shape of the experimental room does not affect performance. Only when the shape of the surrounding space was modified did the performance deteriorate significantly. These results are discussed in relation to the different components of the extramaze environment and the contribution of each of them to the spatial learning.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:issn
0031-9384
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
70
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
351-7
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:articleTitle
Influence of the shape of the experimental room on spatial learning in rats.
pubmed:affiliation
Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología and Instituto de Neurociencias Federico Olóriz, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain. jmjramos@platon.ugr.es
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't