Brightness discrimination and reversal in hippocampally-lesioned rats

Abstract Eleven albino rats with large bilateral hippocampal lesions, nine rats with bilateral lesions of the cortex overlying the hippocampus and 10 unoperated controls were trained on a brightness discrimination and tested on the reversal of the discrimination. The three groups did not differ in learning the discrimination, but the hippocampectomized rats were severely impaired in the reversal of the discrimination. Persistent positional responding during reversal characterized the behavior of the hippocampectomized rats. It is proposed that these results are best understood by postulating that hippocampal lesions produce a deficit in attentional processes.

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