TITLE:
Contrasting the Amnesic Effects of Temporary Inactivation with Lesions of the Hippocampus on Context Memory
AUTHORS:
Gavin A. Scott, Deborah M. Saucier, Hugo Lehmann
KEYWORDS:
Hippocampus, Retrograde Amnesia, Lesion Size, Temporary Inactivation, Fear Conditioning Memory, Rat
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science,
Vol.6 No.4,
April
15,
2016
ABSTRACT: Lesions and temporary inactivation of the hippocampus (HPC) in rodents
occasionally lead to discrepant amnesic effects. We directly compared and
contrasted the retrograde amnesic effects that small HPC lesions (~50% damage),
large HPC lesions (~80% damage), and combined dorsal and ventral HPC inactivation
using the sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin (TTX) had on contextual fear
conditioning. Compared to control rats, large HPC lesions significantly reduced
freezing during retention testing, a behaviour consistent with retrograde
amnesia. In contrast, neither the small lesions nor the TTX inactivation
significantly reduced freezing. The extent of damage was significantly and
negatively correlated with retention performance (r(9) = -0.896, p