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Is cholinergic activity of the caudate nucleus involved in memory?

A review was made of experiments dealing with the involvement of cholinergic activity of the caudate nucleus in memory processes. Injections of acetylcholine-receptor blockers or of neurotoxins against cholinergic interneurons into the striatum produce marked impairments in acquisition and retention of instrumental tasks while injections of acetylcholine or choline into the caudate produce the opposite effect. However, after a period of overtraining cholinergic blockade or interference with neural activity of the caudate does not produce significant deficits in retention. It is concluded that striatal cholinergic activity is critically involved in memory of recent events and that long-term memory is mediated by different neurochemical systems outside the caudate nucleus.

Animals↗

Sequential auditory and visual discriminations after temporal lobe ablation in monkeys.

Studies in the monkey have shown that cortex outside of the primary projection areas in the superior temporal gyrus and in the inferotemporal region in important for the execution of some auditory and visual descriminations. In this study, six monkeys were trained to perform four auditory and two visual discriminations. Retention tests were given prior to bilateral removal of the anterior part of the lateral surface of the superior temporal gyrus, the inferotemporal region, or both areas together. Superior temporal ablations elicited severe deficits on some auditory discriminations. Inferotemporal ablations caused little or no impairment on visual discriminations. This negative finding is attributed to the sequential rather than spatial mode of presentation of visual stimuli, and to overtraining. A single monkey trained on a spatial visual pattern problem without overtraining was impaired. Another monkey tranied to perform an auditory reverse intensity discrimination exhibited a deficit in ability to perform the problem after removal of auditory cortex within the lateral fissure.

Animals↗

Scopolamine and KCl injections into the caudate nucleus. Overtraining-induced protection against deficits of learning.

To test the hypothesis that extended training of an instrumental task prevents the performance impairments seen after cholinergic and generalized blockade of caudate-putamen complex (NC) activity in animals with a relatively low degree of training, groups of rats were trained to press a lever under a continuous reinforcement schedule for 5, 15 or 25 sessions; The effects of microinjections of scopolamine and potassium chloride into the CN were then assessed. In agreement with early studies in cats, a significant deficit in performance was produced in the animals with a low or medium degree of training, while no changes in learned behavior were seen in the overtained rats. These results show that: (a) normal neural activity of the CN is essential for performance of instrumental behavior during acquisition and early maintenance stages but not after overtraining, and (b) that after extended training the encoding necessary for performance may be transferred to another neural system outside the CN.

Animals↗

Delayed response, preoperative overtraining, and prefrontal lesions in the rat.

An earlier study in this laboratory found that preoperative overtraining improved retention of a delayed alternation task after prefrontal lesions in the rat. In this study, however, it was found that preoperative overtraining did not improve performance of the rat in a delayed response task following prefrontal lesions. These results support the hypothesis that preoperative overtraining can improve postoperative performance only when postoperative recovery is ordinarily present, as it is with delayed alternation. but not with delayed response, in the prefrontal rat. This suggests that effects of preoperative overtraining and postoperative recovery may be mediated by similar mechanisms. It further suggests that a shift of function, which seems to account for postoperative recovery, may occur in some parts of the normal adult brain as a result of overtraining.

Animals↗