Perirhinal cortex lesions that impair object recognition memory spare landmark discriminations

Cristian M Olarte-Sánchez,John P Aggleton,Andrew J.D Nelson,Eman Amin

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2016.07.031

Cristian M Olarte-Sánchez, John P Aggleton + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2016.07.031

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Journal: Behavioural Brain Research	Publication Date: Jul 20, 2016
Citations: 7	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Cardiff University

Abstract

Rats with lesions in the perirhinal cortex and their control group learnt to discriminate between mirror-imaged visual landmarks to find a submerged platform in a watermaze. Rats initially learnt this discrimination passively, in that they were repeatedly placed on the platform in one corner of a square watermaze with walls of different appearance, prior to swimming to that same location for the first time in a subsequent probe trial. Perirhinal cortex lesions spared this passively learnt ability, despite the common visual elements shared by the guiding landmarks. These results challenge models of perirhinal function that emphasise its role in solving discriminations between stimuli with ambiguous or overlapping features, while underlining how this cortical region is often not required for spatial processes that involve the hippocampus.

Highlights

Perirhinal cortex lesions that impair object recognition memory spare landmark discriminations Andrew J.D
These results challenge models of perirhinal function that emphasise its role in solving discriminations between stimuli with ambiguous or overlapping features, while underlining how this cortical region is often not required for spatial processes that involve the hippocampus
Evidence in support of this position comes from studies showing that perirhinal cortex lesions can impair visual discriminations involving feature ambiguity [7,8,9,10]

Summary

Short communication

Perirhinal cortex lesions that impair object recognition memory spare landmark discriminations Andrew J.D. Perirhinal cortex lesions spared this passively learnt ability, despite the common visual elements shared by the guiding landmarks. These results challenge models of perirhinal function that emphasise its role in solving discriminations between stimuli with ambiguous or overlapping features, while underlining how this cortical region is often not required for spatial processes that involve the hippocampus. Current address: Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, Foresterhill, University of Aberdeen, AB25 2Z, UK This account can readily explain why perirhinal lesions can often spare performance on spatial memory tasks, as perirhinal lesions might only be expected to disrupt those tests of spatial memory that involve discriminations between stimuli with overlapping or ambiguous visual features.

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Findings

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