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Role of the hippocampus in goal-oriented tasks requiring retrieval of spatial versus non-spatial information
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Role of the hippocampus in goal-oriented tasks requiring retrieval of spatial versus non-spatial information

Liat Levita and Isabel A. Muzzio
Neurobiology of learning and memory, Vol.93(4), pp.581-588
2010
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2010.02.006
PMID: 20206279

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Abstract

The role of the hippocampus in non-spatial memory has been issue of some controversy. To investigate the nature of dorsal hippocampus engagement in spatial and non-spatial memory we performed discrete excitotoxic lesions of this region before mice (C57/BL6) were trained in one of two tasks that required the animals to retrieve a hidden food reward. In the visuospatial task animals had to remember a particular spatial location, independent of odor cues. In contrast, in a non-spatial olfactory task animals had to remember a particular odor, independent of spatial location. The mice were trained in one of these tasks over a period of three days. We found that lesions restricted to the dorsal hippocampus affected performance only in the spatial task. In contrast, lesions that also encompassed a larger portion of the ventral hippocampus caused a moderate deficit in the olfactory task. These results are consistent with the role of the dorsal hippocampus in long-term spatial episodic memory, and support the involvement of larger portions of the hippocampus on the encoding of non-spatial olfactory representations.
 Dorsal hippocampus Excitotoxic lesions Learning Memory Olfactory Spatial

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