Posttraining intracranial self-stimulation ameliorates the detrimental effects of parafascicular thalamic lesions on active avoidance in young and aged rats

To evaluate whether intracranial self-stimulation (SS) ameliorates conditioning deficits induced by parafascicular nucleus (PF) damage in young and aged rats, the authors gave rats a daily session of 2-way active avoidance until a fixed criterion was achieved. Four experimental groups were establish...

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Published inBehavioral neuroscience Vol. 117; no. 2; p. 246
Main Authors Redolar-Ripoll, Diego, Soriano-Mas, Carles, Guillazo-Blanch, Gemma, Aldavert-Vera, Laura, Segura-Torres, Pilar, Morgado-Bernal, Ignacio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.2003
Subjects
Age Factors
Animals
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Behavior, Animal
Conditioning (Psychology) - physiology
Intralaminar Thalamic Nuclei - pathology
Intralaminar Thalamic Nuclei - physiopathology
Male
Random Allocation
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Self Stimulation - physiology
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Summary:To evaluate whether intracranial self-stimulation (SS) ameliorates conditioning deficits induced by parafascicular nucleus (PF) damage in young and aged rats, the authors gave rats a daily session of 2-way active avoidance until a fixed criterion was achieved. Four experimental groups were established in both young and aged rats: SS treatment after every conditioning session (SS groups), pretraining PF lesions (lesion groups), PF lesions and SS treatment (L + SS groups), and controls. SS treatment not only canceled the detrimental effects of PF lesions, but also improved conditioning in lesioned rats (L + SS groups). This effect was more powerful in aged rats. SS treatment compensated for memory deficits generated by hypofunctionality of arousal systems such as that involving the PF.
ISSN:0735-7044
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.117.2.246