Limbic lesions and cue utilization in the Dashiell maze

Abstract

Septally lesioned, hippocampally lesioned, and unoperated rats were trained for 20 days in one of two conditions in a Dashiell maze. In one maze condition, the peripheral paths were black and the center paths were white, while in the other, the reverse was the case. When the center paths were black and peripheral paths white, lesioned animals, as well as control, preferred center pathways. Although all animals preferred the black peripheral routes in the white-center maze condition, septal animals made significantly fewer errorless runs in this condition. This latter observation reflected an enhanced aversiveness by the septal animals for the white pathways.