Problem solving in the rat: Septal lesion effects on habituation and perseverative tendencies

Spatial problem solving in the rat following medial frontal lesions

“…This finding stands in contrast to the results reported by Ellen and Weston (1983) with respect to septal lesions. Unlike medial frontals, animals with septal lesions fail to demonstrate any decreasing pattern of table-entry behavior during the 15-min exploratory periods.…”

“…Although that result was not remarkable or new, a close examination of the task's exploratory phase revealed a plausible explanation of that failure. Ellen and Weston (1983) found that normal animals show a gradual decrease in the number of tables entered over the 15-min exploratory period, whereas septal animals continue to enter tables at a high rate over the entire period. In short, the septal animals, unlike the normals, fail to habituate during the exploratory phase.…”

“…In contrast, in the multistage 3-table task, it is possible to dissociate these potential differences. For example, Ellen and Weston (1983) have shown that rats with septal damage fail on the test trial of the 3-table task. Although that result was not remarkable or new, a close examination of the task's exploratory phase revealed a plausible explanation of that failure.…”

The use of intramaze stimuli in the attenuation of the problem-solving deficit of septal animals

“…When the stimulus inserts merely identified the spatiallocation of each table and its corresponding runway, then septals still were impaired relative to normals. More importantly, the fact that normals could perform successfully in Experiment 2 only when they had received a prior exploratory experience indicated that highlighting the spatial location of each table and its runway with a distinctive intramaze stimulus marker does not alter the qualitative character of the three-table task as one requiring spatial integration.A number of neurobehavioral studies (Ellen & Weston, 1983;Herrmann, Black, Anchel, & Ellen, 1978;Herrmann, Black, Doherty, & Ellen, 1980;Rabe & Haddad, 1969;Stahl & Ellen, 1973, 1979 have shown that damage to the septal-hippocampal complex and its interconnections produces profound and long-lasting deficits in performance on the Maier three-table task (Maier, 1932). It will be recalled that on this task animals are required to integrate information concerning the spatial relations existing among the three tables with information concerning the daily locus of food.…”

“…A number of neurobehavioral studies (Ellen & Weston, 1983;Herrmann, Black, Anchel, & Ellen, 1978;Herrmann, Black, Doherty, & Ellen, 1980;Rabe & Haddad, 1969;Stahl & Ellen, 1973, 1979 have shown that damage to the septal-hippocampal complex and its interconnections produces profound and long-lasting deficits in performance on the Maier three-table task (Maier, 1932). It will be recalled that on this task animals are required to integrate information concerning the spatial relations existing among the three tables with information concerning the daily locus of food.…”