Visual cues in successive position reversals: Retention deficits following septal lesions

Abstract

Rats learned a Y-maze position habit and eight successive reversals in one of three experimental conditions, each distinguished by different visual cues on the goal box doors. Following a retention test septal lesions were produced and the animals retested. Reversal performance was best when the correct choice was associated consistently with a single visual cue. When two distinct visual cues were correlated with the correct choice in an alternating sequence, preoperative reversal performance did not differ from the condition with no overt visual cue, except for an increased amount of vicarious approaches. Septal lesions did not affect reversal performance when visual cues consistently signalled the correct choice, but produced significant decrements in the other two conditions. In the condition which lacked distinct visual cues, septal animals made more errors and vicarious approaches than in the condition which had visual cues associated with the correct choice in an alternating sequence. These results suggest that septal lesions impair ability to use spatial/positional cues. The extent to which this deficit is expressed depends on the relevance of the visual cues provided.