Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Do the rat anterior thalamic nuclei contribute to behavioural flexibility?

Kinnavane, Lisa, Amin, Eman, Aggleton, John P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5573-1308 and Nelson, Andrew J. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5171-413X 2019. Do the rat anterior thalamic nuclei contribute to behavioural flexibility? Behavioural Brain Research 359 , pp. 536-549. 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.10.012

[thumbnail of main.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

The rodent anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) are vital for spatial memory. A consideration of their extensive frontal connections suggests that these nuclei may also subserve non-spatial functions. The current experiments explored the importance of the ATN for different aspects of behavioural flexibility, including their contribution to tasks typically associated with frontal cortex. In Experiment 1, rats with ATN lesions were tested on a series of response and visual discriminations in an operant box and, subsequently, in a water tank. The tasks included assessments of reversal learning as well switches between each discrimination dimension. Results revealed a mild and transient deficit on the operant task that was not specific to any stage of the procedure. In the water tank, the lesion animals were impaired on the reversal of a spatial discrimination but did not differ from controls on any other measure. Experiment 2 examined the impact of ATN damage on a rodent analogue of the ‘Stroop’, which assesses response choice during stimulus conflict. The lesion animals successfully acquired this task and were able to use contextual information to disambiguate conflicting cue information. However, responding during the initial presentation of conflicting cue information was affected by the lesion. Taken together, these results suggest that the ATN are not required for aspects of behavioural flexibility (discrimination learning, reversals or high-order switches) typically associated with the rat medial prefrontal cortex. The results from Experiment 2 suggest that the non-spatial functions of the ATN may be more aligned with those of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Psychology
Additional Information: This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY license.
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0166-4328
Funders: Wellcome Trust
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 9 October 2018
Date of Acceptance: 5 October 2018
Last Modified: 10 Jul 2023 16:29
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/115695

Citation Data

Cited 5 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics