Gender-specific impairment on Morris water maze task after entorhinal cortex lesion

After unilateral entorhinal cortex lesion, deficits on a working spatial memory Morris water maze task were examined in male and female rats to determine if gender differences exist in response to hippocampal deafferentation. Brain-damaged males showed a persistent water maze deficit that persisted throughout the 10 days of testing. Brain-damaged females did not. The performance of the injured females was only slightly impaired relative to sham males and females, and was significantly better than males with EC damage. This lack of a water maze deficit in lesion females is hypothesized to be due either to gender differences in sprouting responses or to a more flexible use of multiple cues by females relative to males.

[1]  P. Wright,et al.  Enhanced recovery of learned alternation in ganglioside-treated rats after unilateral entorhinal lesions , 1991, Behavioural Brain Research.

[2]  L. Squire.  The neuropsychology of human memory. , 1982, Annual review of neuroscience.

[3]  C. Cotman,et al.  Chronic glucocorticoid therapy alters axon sprouting in the hippocampal dentate gyrus , 1982, Experimental Neurology.

[4]  O. Steward,et al.  Behavioral correlates of denervation and reinnervation of the hippocampal formation of the rat: Recovery of alternation performance following unilateral entorhinal cortex lesions , 1977, Brain Research Bulletin.

[5]  O. Steward,et al.  Quantitative autoradiographic analysis of the time course of proliferation of contralateral entorhinal efferents in the dentate gyrus denervated by ipsilateral entorhinal lesions , 1977, Brain Research.

[6]  D. Stein,et al.  Progesterone treatment attenuates brain edema following contusion injury in male and female rats. , 1992, Restorative neurology and neuroscience.

[7]  T. M. Reeves,et al.  Reinnervation of the dentate gyrus and recovery of alternation behavior following entorhinal cortex lesions. , 1987, Behavioral neuroscience.

[8]  C. Cotman,et al.  Recovery of spontaneous alternation following lesions of the entorhinal cortex in adult rats: possible correlation to axon sprouting. , 1977, Behavioral biology.

[9]  B. Milner,et al.  Disorders of learning and memory after temporal lobe lesions in man. , 1972, Clinical neurosurgery.

[10]  S. DeKosky,et al.  Steroid suppression of axon sprouting in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of the adult rat: Dose-response relationship , 1983, Experimental Neurology.

[11]  S. Hoff.  Lesion-induced transneuronal plasticity in the adult rat hippocampus , 1986, Neuroscience.

[12]  S. Karpiak.  Ganglioside treatment improves recovery of alternation behavior after unilateral entorhinal cortex lesion , 1983, Experimental Neurology.

[13]  D. Stein,et al.  Gender influences outcome of brain injury: progesterone plays a protective role , 1993, Brain Research.

[14]  O. Steward,et al.  The time course of changes in open field activity following bilateral entorhinal lesions in rats and cats. , 1981, Behavioral and neural biology.

[15]  B. Fass.  Temporal changes in open-field activity following progressive lesions of entorhinal cortex: evidence for enhanced recovery. , 1983, Behavioral and neural biology.

[16]  T. Milner,et al.  Hormonal regulation of axonal sprouting in the hippocampus , 1982, Brain Research.

[17]  G. Lynch,et al.  Synaptic rearrangement in the dentate gyrus: histochemical evidence of adjustments after lesions in immature and adult rats. , 1973, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[18]  C. Cotman,et al.  Effect of serial lesions on sprouting in the dentate gyrus: Onset and decline of the catalytic effect , 1978, Brain Research.

[19]  J. J. Ramirez,et al.  Ganglioside-induced enhancement of behavioral recovery after bilateral lesions of the entorhinal cortex , 1987, Brain Research.

[20]  B. Fass,et al.  Effects of ganglioside treatments on lesion‐induced behavioral impairments and sprouting in the CNS , 1984, Journal of neuroscience research.

[21]  Warren H. Meck,et al.  Organizational effects of early gonadal secretions on sexual differentiation in spatial memory. , 1990, Behavioral Neuroscience.

[22]  D. Stein,et al.  Hormonal state affects recovery from frontal cortex lesions in adult female rats. , 1987, Behavioral and neural biology.