Dorsal hippocampal lesions boost performance in the rat sequential reaction time task

Eckart, Moritz Thede; Huelse-Matia, M.C.; Schwarting, Rainer K.W.

doi:10.1002/hipo.20965

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…For SRTT training and testing (for details see Domenger and Schwarting 2008;Eckart et al 2012), we used modified operant chambers (MedAssociates Inc., UK) with four LED-equipped holes (i.e. nose-poke holes) arranged in a small recess in a semi-elliptic way tilted towards the pelletreceptacle (photographs of the set-up can be found in Schwarting 2009).…”

Section: Srttmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The principle set-up and the procedures of the object place recognition test have been described previously (Eckart et al 2012). In short, 14 days after surgery, the animals were habituated to the test apparatus (home-made open field, 60 9 60 9 40 cm) by placing them into the box without any test objects for 20 min each.…”

Section: Object Place Recognition Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic training and shaping procedures have been described previously (Eckart et al 2012). In short, the animals were trained daily (20 min each) until they reached the criterion of FR 13.…”

Section: Basic Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…non-declarative learning, is dependent on the availability of striatal dopamine and can therefore be impaired in rats by lesions of the basal ganglia. While the role of the hippocampus still remains ambiguous in this context, several studies have shown that impairment of the hippocampus may not only spare sequential learning abilities in humans (Nissen 1987;Hopkins et al 2004;Nagy et al 2007) but may even increase performance in sequential learning tasks that only require minimal spatial cues in rats (Compton 2004;Eckart et al 2012;Will et al 2013). This boosting effect is probably due to the reason that the lesion prevented the competitive impact of the hippocampus in a procedural task which requires no hippocampal information processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Continuing on our previous study (Eckart et al 2012), the present study investigated the effects of ibotenic acid lesions aimed at the dorsal hippocampus on sequential behaviour, as assessed with our food-reinforced rodent version of the SRTT (Domenger and Schwarting 2005, 2008Schwarting 2009). Three groups (lesioned animals, sham-injected animals, and control animals) were trained in the SRTT on a specific sequence under a fixed ratio schedule (FR13 run) until they reached a stable level of performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Procedural Performance Benefits after Excitotoxic Hippocampal Lesions in the Rat Sequential Reaction Time Task

Busse

Schwarting

2015

Neurotox Res

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It is widely agreed upon that hippocampal function is linked to episodic-like and spatial memory across various species, for example, rodents. However, the interplay between hippocampal function and other types of learning and memory, like procedural stimulus-response or sequential learning, is less clear. Recently (Eckart et al. in Hippocampus 22:1202-1214, 2012), we showed that excitotoxic hippocampal lesions, which mainly affected its dorsal part, led not only to the expected deficits in a spatial and episodic-like memory task, namely the object place recognition test, but also to substantial improvements in terms of speed and accuracy in a rat adaption of the human sequential reaction time task (SRTT). The design of that experiment, however, which included fixed test durations per training day, led to the fact that lesioned animals gained more instrumental experience, which may partly have accounted for their enhanced performance. In order to rule out such a potential confound, we performed the present experiment on rats with similar ibotenic lesions aiming at the dorsal hippocampus, but we now kept the amount of correct instrumental responses and reinforcements on the same level as in controls. Our data revealed that lesioned animals were still able to complete the SRTT in a substantially smaller amount of time, when compared to control and sham-operated animals, although no differences were observable in terms of speed or accuracy. Also, the animals with lesions showed impaired extinction in a subsequent test where rewards were omitted. The former effect can primarily be attributed to shorter post-reinforcement pauses in the lesioned animals, and the possible mechanisms of this and the extinction effect will be addressed in the discussion.

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Section: Srttmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Object Place Recognition Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Basic Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Procedural Performance Benefits after Excitotoxic Hippocampal Lesions in the Rat Sequential Reaction Time Task

Busse

Schwarting

2015

Neurotox Res

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Differential effects of social and physical environmental enrichment on brain plasticity, cognition, and ultrasonic communication in rats

Brenes

Lackinger

Höglinger

et al. 2015

J of Comparative Neurology

133

107

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Environmental enrichment (EE) exerts beneficial effects on brain plasticity, cognition, and anxiety/depression, leading to a brain that can counteract deficits underlying various brain disorders. Because the complexity of the EE commonly used makes it difficult to identify causal aspects, we examined possible factors using a 2 × 2 design with social EE (two vs. six rats) and physical EE (physically enriched vs. nonenriched). For the first time, we demonstrate that social and physical EE have differential effects on brain plasticity, cognition, and ultrasonic communication. Expectedly, physical EE promoted neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation, but not in the subventricular zone, and, as a novel finding, affected microRNA expression levels, with the activity-dependent miR-124 and miR-132 being upregulated. Concomitant improvements in cognition were observed, yet social deficits were seen in the emission of prosocial 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) paralleled by a lack of social approach in response to them, consistent with the intense world syndrome/theory of autism. In contrast, social EE had only minor effects on brain plasticity and cognition, but led to increased prosocial 50-kHz USV emission rates and enhanced social approach behavior. Importantly, social deficits following physical EE were prevented by additional social EE. The finding that social EE has positive whereas physical EE has negative effects on social behavior indicates that preclinical studies focusing on EE as a potential treatment in models for neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social deficits, such as autism, should include social EE in addition to physical EE, because its lack might worsen social deficits.

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Interference effects between memory systems in the acquisition of a skill

Gagné

Cohen

2016

Exp Brain Res

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There is now converging evidence that the declarative memory system (hippocampus dependent) contributes to sequential motor learning in concert with the procedural memory system (striatum dependent). Because of the competition for shared neuronal resources, introducing a declarative memory task can impair learning of a new motor sequence and interference may occur during the procedural consolidation process. Here, we investigated the extent to which interference effects between memory systems are seen at the retrieval phase of skill learning. Healthy participants were assigned to a control (n = 15) or a declarative condition (n = 15) and trained on a sequence of finger movements (FOS task). Both groups showed similar improvement at the end of the practice session on the first day. Twenty-four hours later, controls were tested solely on the FOS task, while subjects in the declarative condition first engaged in a visuospatial task. Additional offline gains in performance were observed only in the control condition. The introduction of a visuospatial memory task just before retrieval of the motor skill was sufficient to eliminate these gains. This suggests that interference between procedural and declarative memory systems may also occur during subsequent motor recall. It is proposed that the interference effects are linked, in part, to the spatial nature of the motor and declarative tasks, which specifically depends upon hippocampal involvement.

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Dorsal hippocampal lesions boost performance in the rat sequential reaction time task

Cited by 14 publications

References 56 publications

Procedural Performance Benefits after Excitotoxic Hippocampal Lesions in the Rat Sequential Reaction Time Task

Procedural Performance Benefits after Excitotoxic Hippocampal Lesions in the Rat Sequential Reaction Time Task

Differential effects of social and physical environmental enrichment on brain plasticity, cognition, and ultrasonic communication in rats

Interference effects between memory systems in the acquisition of a skill

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