Contributions of cingulate cortex to two forms of spatial learning and memory

Abstract

The contribution of anterior and posterior cingulate cortical areas to spatial learning and memory was examined in 4 experiments using the place-navigation task. Rats with complete bilateral cingulate cortex aspiration or aspiration of posterior cingulate cortex (area 29) alone could not swim directly to a hidden platform located in a fixed place. When animals with these lesions were tested for 40 d in a place-alternation task in which they received 16 daily trials with the platform placed in a new location each day, they did not show reliable improvement in place navigation. The inability to swim to changing locations or to a single location was not overcome by preoperative training in these tasks. Rats with anterior cingulate cortex aspirations showed a less severe impairment in both tasks and, with more training than is necessary for control rats, they acquired near-normal place-navigation accuracy. Rats with complete cingulate cortex aspiration were almost as accurate as control rats in learning to swim to a visible platform. The results imply that posterior cingulate areas play an essential role in the use of topographical information, probably by transmitting and elaborating information passing between the hippocampal system and neocortical association areas.