Spared Retention of Inhibitory Avoidance Learning After Posttraining Amygdala Lesions

Previous findings indicate that the memory-impairing effects of posttraining amygdala lesions are attenuated by increasing the number of training trials given prior to the induction of the lesion. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether the degree of impairment is also influenced by the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 1995-08, Vol.109 (4), p.803-807
Main Authors: Parent, Marise B, Quirarte, Gina L, Cahill, Larry, McGaugh, James L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amygdala
Amygdala - physiology
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Animal
Animal memory
Animals
Avoidance Conditioning
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Brain Mapping
Fear - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Learning
Male
Memory
Motivation
Neural Inhibition - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate - physiology
Retention (Psychology) - physiology
Rodents
Shock
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Summary:Previous findings indicate that the memory-impairing effects of posttraining amygdala lesions are attenuated by increasing the number of training trials given prior to the induction of the lesion. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether the degree of impairment is also influenced by the footshock intensity used during training. Rats were given 1 trial of inhibitory avoidance (IA) training with either no footshock or a footshock at 1 of 3 intensities. Sham or neurotoxic amygdala lesions were induced 1 week later. On a retention test performed 4 days after surgery, the performance of all amygdala-lesioned rats given footshock training, including those given the lowest training footshock, was better than that of amygdala-lesioned rats given no training footshock. These findings of preserved retention of IA learning in rats given posttraining amygdala lesions do not support a general hypothesis that the amygdala is a locus of permanent changes underlying aversively motivated learning.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.109.4.803