Wright KM, Yoder RM, Pang KCH (2002) Spatial strategies in rats with cholinergic or GABAergic lesions of the medial septum. Neuroscience 2002 Abstracts 378.2. Society for Neuroscience, Orlando, FL.
Summary: The major projection neurons of the septohippocampal (SH) system are GABAergic and cholinergic. When both populations of neurons are damaged together, deficits in learning and memory occur. However, when only one population is damaged, spatial memory in the water maze and radial arm maze is intact. The present study evaluated whether spatial strategies differed between rats with either GABAergic or cholinergic septal lesions. Domoic acid or 192 IgG saporin (sap) was injected into the medial septum (MS) to damage GABAergic or cholinergic neurons, respectively. Spatial strategies were examined on the plus maze and water maze. In the plus maze, rats were started from a single arm and trained to enter a goal arm containing both the reward and an intra-maze cue. Probe trials assessed whether the rats used place, response or cue strategies. During a probe trial, the starting location and the intra-maze cue were moved from that during training. In the water maze, animals were trained for 9 days in 3-day cycles. The first two days of the cycle used a visible platform and the third day of training was performed with a submerged platform. A single probe trial was conducted on day 10. On the probe trial, the first quadrant visited determined whether rats were using cue, place, or response strategies. Preliminary results show that rats treated with domoic acid use the place strategy on all probe trials in the plus maze, but do not use a consistent strategy in the water maze. Sap-treated animals also use mainly a place strategy. The results of this study may help determine the role of MS neurons in spatial strategy selection.
Related Products: 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01)