Bailey AM, St Germain J, Tyler MM (2005) 192 IgG-saporin lesions to the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) do not disrupt the retention of learning set formation. Neuroscience 2005 Abstracts 881.2. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC.
Summary: Male Long Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus) were used to investigate the role of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (nBM) in the retention of a previously acquired learning set rule. All rats had successfully acquired an olfactory discrimination learning set by demonstrating above chance performance on trial 2 across 42 olfactory discrimination problems. Following the initial acquisition of learning set, animals were given bilateral 192 IgG-saporin (0.375 µg/µl; 0.4 µl per hemisphere) lesions to the nBM. Assessment of open field activity indicated that there were no group differences in general activity levels or emotionality before or after surgery. Retention of learning set was tested 10 days following surgery with 20 novel, odor-unique olfactory discrimination learning set problems. Control and nBM lesioned animals performed significantly higher than expected by chance on trial 2 of the novel problems suggesting retention of a learning set hypothesis. However, rats with 192 IgG-saporin nBM lesions performed learning set at a significantly lower level than control animals as measured by trial 2 percentage correct. Results suggest that damage to the nBM disrupts general performance on a cognitively demanding task, but does not block retention of the learning set rule.
Related Products: 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01)