Cholinergic input to the hippocampus is not required for episodic memory in the rat, even with multiple consecutive events.
S. Seel, M.J. Eacott, A. Easton. Behav Brain Res 2017. PMID: 28601587
S. Seel, M.J. Eacott, A. Easton. Behav Brain Res 2017. PMID: 28601587
The authors use 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01) to examine episodic memory.
- Continual trials versions of an episodic memory task are unimpaired by cholinergic lesions of the medial septum.
- In contrast continual trial versions of a location-context (where-which) task are impaired in the same animals.
- The results replicate the effects of lesions on one-trial a day versions of the same tasks.
- Increasing the amount of interference between trials by increasing the overlap of features in consecutive events has no effect on the behavioural outcome of these lesions.
- The result is interpreted in light of models of acetylcholine function centered around pattern separation.