BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF MAMMILLOTHALAMIC TRACTOTOMY IN CATS
- 1 November 1963
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physiological Society in Journal of Neurophysiology
- Vol. 26 (6), 857-876
- https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.1963.26.6.857
Abstract
Effects of mammillo-thalamic tractotomy on behavior were evaluated with three tests. Lesions were produced by stereotaxically positioned focused ultrasound and by d.c. electrolytic fulguration. Cats that sustained complete bilateral mammillothalamic tractotomy showed marked deficit in retention and relearning of preoperatively learned avoidance responses compared with the performance of sham-operated control cats or cats in which the lesion failed to interrupt the tracts completely. No disturbance of postoperative retention of a positively reinforced visual discrimination habit was found after bilateral mammillothalamic tractotomy. When naive cats receive avoidance conditioning after mammillothalamic tractotomy, no statistically significant loss in learning was observed. However, some tractotomized cats (4 out of 11) were severely impaired and failed to reach learning criterion. It is suggested that the lesions do not directly affect neural mechanisms subserving associative or storage aspects of memory, but the impairment of retention in the double-grill box is thought to derive from lesion-induced enhancement of an innate defensive response of "freezing" which is incompatible with an active avoidance response to the conditioned stimuli.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- On functions of the mamillary bodies in the squirrel monkeyExperimental Neurology, 1963
- Effects of lesions of the medial forebrain on alternation behavior of rhesus monkeysExperimental Neurology, 1962
- CEREBRAL REPRESENTATION OF PENILE ERECTIONJournal of Neurophysiology, 1962
- A KORSAKOFF SYNDROME IN THE POST-CINGULECTOMY CONFUSIONAL STATEBrain, 1960
- THE EFFECT OF TEMPORAL LOBE AND HIPPOCAMPAL LESIONS ON AUDITORY AND VISUAL RECENT MEMORY IN MONKEYSBrain, 1960
- THE LIMBIC SYSTEM WITH RESPECT TO SELF-PRESERVATION AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE SPECIESJournal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 1958
- LOSS OF RECENT MEMORY AFTER BILATERAL HIPPOCAMPAL LESIONSJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 1957
- A PROPOSED MECHANISM OF EMOTIONArchives of Neurology & Psychiatry, 1937