Comparison of the Short- and Long-Lasting Effects of Perforant Path Kindling on Radial Maze Learning

• Published in: Behavioral neuroscience 1993-12, Vol.107 (6), p.988-995
• Main Authors: Robinson, Gilbert B, McNeill, Heather A, Reed, Gina D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anatomical correlates of behavior; Animal; Animal behavior; Animals; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Discrimination Learning - physiology; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hippocampus - physiology; Kindling; Kindling, Neurologic - physiology; Learning; Long-Term Potentiation - physiology; Male; Maze Learning; Mental Recall - physiology; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neurology; Orientation - physiology; Problem Solving - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Retention (Psychology) - physiology; Synaptic Transmission - physiology
• ISSN: 0735-7044; 1939-0084
• DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.107.6.988

The present experiment compared the long-lasting with the short-lasting effects of kindling the perforant path input to the hippocampal formation on the acquisition of two radial maze tasks. Animals in the long-term group were fully kindled (i.e., Stage 5 motor seizures were evoked) prior to a stimulation-free training period. Animals in the short-term group were kindled 30-45 min prior to each learning trial. A third group of animals served as controls and were never kindled. On both 8-arm and 4/8-arm radial maze tasks, learning impairments were apparent only in the short-term group. Thus, the impaired learning is more likely related to the short-term aftereffects of an afterdischarge than to any long-term alterations in the neuronal status of the brain caused by kindling.