Thalamic amnesia reconsidered: Excitotoxic lesions of the intralaminar nuclei, but not the mediodorsal nucleus, disrupt place delayed matching-to-sample performance in rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Burk, Joshua A.; Mair, Robert G.

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.112.1.54

Cited by 72 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Previous studies with excitotoxic lesions of the rat brain showed that the intralaminar thalamic nuclei are involved in several types of memory and learning paradigms, such as working memory, motor intention, and active avoidance (Burk and Mair, 1998;Massanés-Rotger et al, 1998;Mair et al, 2002). The dorsolateral and dorsomedial striatum appear to have different functions in these behavioral paradigms that involve the intralaminar thalamic nuclei (Mair et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies on the behavioral role of the intralaminar thalamic nuclei in rodents have been performed by the use of several types of memory and learning paradigms (Burk and Mair, 1998;Massanés-Rotger et al, 1998;Mair et al, 2002). However, little is known about the specific roles of the thalamostriatal pathways derived from the intralaminar nuclear groups in the behavioral processes linked to basal ganglia function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selective Neural Pathway Targeting Reveals Key Roles of Thalamostriatal Projection in the Control of Visual Discrimination

Kato

Kuramochi²,

Kobayashi³

et al. 2011

J. Neurosci.

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The dorsal striatum receives converging excitatory inputs from diverse brain regions, including the cerebral cortex and the intralaminar/ midline thalamic nuclei, and mediates learning processes contributing to instrumental motor actions. However, the roles of each striatal input pathway in these learning processes remain uncertain. We developed a novel strategy to target specific neural pathways and applied this strategy for studying behavioral roles of the pathway originating from the parafascicular nucleus (PF) and projecting to the dorsolateral striatum. A highly efficient retrograde gene transfer vector encoding the recombinant immunotoxin (IT) receptor was injected into the dorsolateral striatum in mice to express the receptor in neurons innervating the striatum. IT treatment into the PF of the vector-injected animals caused a selective elimination of neurons of the PF-derived thalamostriatal pathway. The elimination of this pathway impaired the response selection accuracy and delayed the motor response in the acquisition of a visual cue-dependent discrimination task. When the pathway elimination was induced after learning acquisition, it disturbed the response accuracy in the task performance with no apparent change in the response time. The elimination did not influence spontaneous locomotion, methamphetamine-induced hyperactivity, and motor skill learning that demand the function of the dorsal striatum. These results demonstrate that thalamostriatal projection derived from the PF plays essential roles in the acquisition and execution of discrimination learning in response to sensory stimulus. The temporal difference in the pathway requirement for visual discrimination suggests a stage-specific role of thalamostriatal pathway in the modulation of response time of learned motor actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Neural Pathway Targeting Reveals Key Roles of Thalamostriatal Projection in the Control of Visual Discrimination

Kato

Kuramochi²,

Kobayashi³

et al. 2011

J. Neurosci.

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“…The importance of the intralaminar nuclei was confirmed by evidence that memory is spared in rats that lack intralaminar lesions after recovery from PTD treatment (Mair et al, 1988(Mair et al, , 1991, as well as in rats where lesions are prevented by pharmacological blockade of NMDA receptors (Robinson and Mair, 1992). Other studies have demonstrated comparable patterns of impairment following lesions damaging the intralaminar nuclei, but not following lesions of other areas damaged by PTD treatment (Mair and Lacourse, 1992;Burk and Mair, 1998).…”

Section: Discrete Central Thalamic Lesions Disrupt Specific Frontal Cmentioning

confidence: 96%

Cognitive Activation by Central Thalamic Stimulation: The Yerkes-Dodson Law Revisited

Mair¹,

Onos²,

Hembrook³

2010

Dose-Response

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ᮀ Central thalamus regulates forebrain arousal, influencing activity in distributed neural networks that give rise to organized actions during alert, wakeful states. Central thalamus has been implicated in working memory by the effects of lesions and microinjected drugs in this part of the brain. Lesions and drugs that inhibit neural activity have been found to impair working memory. Drugs that increase activity have been found to enhance and impair memory depending on the dose tested. Electrical deep brain stimulation (DBS) similarly enhances working memory at low stimulating currents and impairs it at higher currents. These effects are time dependent. They were observed when DBS was applied during the memory delay (retention) or choice response (retrieval) but not earlier in trials during the sample (acquisition) phase. The effects of microinjected drugs and DBS are consistent with the Yerkes-Dodson law, which describes an inverted-U relationship between arousal and behavioral performance. Alternatively these results may reflect desensitization associated with higher levels of stimulation, spread of drugs or current to adjacent structures, or activation of less sensitive neurons or receptors at higher DBS currents or drug doses.

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“…In contrast, a broader range of deficits is associated with ILn lesions and, coupled with the suggestion that only modest or more selective effects occur after localized AT lesions, this evidence has provided the impetus to suggest that ILn damage is a more essential source of thalamic amnesia (Mair et al 2003). For example, there are several reports that large ILn lesions produce delay-independent deficits in both spatial and olfactory tasks and evidence that this thalamic region is involved in egocentric response-related processing (Harrison and Mair 1996;Young et al 1996;Burk and Mair 1998;Mair et al 1998;Zhang et al 1998).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lateral and anterior thalamic lesions impair independent memory systems

Mitchell¹,

Dalrymple‐Alford²

2006

Learn. Mem.

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Damage to the medial region of the thalamus, both in clinical cases (e.g., patients with infarcts or the Korsakoff's syndrome) and animal lesion models, is associated with variable amnesic deficits. Some studies suggest that many of these memory deficits rely on the presence of lateral thalamic lesions (LT) that include the intralaminar nuclei, presumably by altering normal function between the striatum and frontal cortex. Other studies suggest that the anterior thalamic nuclei (AT) may be more critical, as a result of disruption to an extended hippocampal system. Here, highly selective LT and AT lesions were made to test the prediction that these two regions contribute to two different memory systems. Only LT lesions produced deficits on a preoperatively acquired response-related (egocentric) working memory task, tested in a cross-maze. Conversely, only AT lesions impaired postoperative acquisition of spatial working memory, tested in a radial maze. These findings provide the first direct evidence of a double dissociation between the LT and AT neural aggregates. As the lateral and the anterior medial thalamus influence parallel independent memory processing systems, they may each contribute to memory deficits, depending on lesion extent in clinical and experimental cases of thalamic amnesia.Profound memory deficits including disruptions to allocentric (place-related) and egocentric (response-related) spatial information processing may occur following medial thalamic injury in humans (Holdstock et al. 1999;Kopelman 2002;Van der Werf et al. 2000, 2003. The source of these impairments is uncertain, with recent reports emphasizing either the intralaminar (ILn) or the anterior (AT) thalamic nuclei (Graff-Radford et al. 1990;Aggleton and Brown 1999;Harding et al. 2000;Mair et al. 2003). Damage to the AT in animal models mimics many of the allocentric spatial memory deficits associated with hippocampal system damage, which is believed to be a key indicator of episodic memory loss (

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Thalamic amnesia reconsidered: Excitotoxic lesions of the intralaminar nuclei, but not the mediodorsal nucleus, disrupt place delayed matching-to-sample performance in rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Cited by 72 publications

References 38 publications

Selective Neural Pathway Targeting Reveals Key Roles of Thalamostriatal Projection in the Control of Visual Discrimination

Selective Neural Pathway Targeting Reveals Key Roles of Thalamostriatal Projection in the Control of Visual Discrimination

Cognitive Activation by Central Thalamic Stimulation: The Yerkes-Dodson Law Revisited

Lateral and anterior thalamic lesions impair independent memory systems

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