Yoder RM, Reuss SA, Pang KC (2001) Maze strategy in rats with GABAergic or cholinergic lesions of medial septum. Neuroscience 2001 Abstracts 418.7. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.
Summary: Cholinergic and GABAergic neurons are the two major cell types that project from medial septum to hippocampus. Although complete lesions of hippocampus or medial septum impair spatial memory, selective lesions of cholinergic or GABAergic neurons do not impair spatial abilities on an 8-arm radial or Morris water maze. Control and lesion rats possibly use different strategies to solve these tasks. Previous studies show that normal rats initially use a place strategy, then switch to a response strategy. In contrast, rats with hippocampus inactivated rely on a response strategy. Our preliminary results suggest that rats with GABAergic lesions of medial septum preferentially use a response strategy. The present study assessed whether rats with cholinergic (192-IgG saporin) or GABAergic (kainic acid) lesions of the medial septum preferentially use a place, response, or cue strategy to solve a plus maze task. During training, one arm contained food (goal) and an adjacent arm served as the starting location. The room contained distal cues and a proximal cue near the food. Probe trials were used every 4th day to assess the maze strategy used by the rat. During probe trials, the start location was located on the arm opposite the original start arm, and the proximal cue was located in the original start location. This study determines whether rats with loss of cholinergic or GABAergic medial septal neurons preferentially use different strategies to solve maze tasks.
Related Products: 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01)