MacLeod Jill E, Bucci David J
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
Behav Neurosci. 2010 Jun;124(3):321-8. doi: 10.1037/a0019344.
The medial prefrontal cortex of rats has a role in many aspects of cognitive function, including forms of inhibitory learning. Recent studies suggest that there is heterogeneity in the contributions of the prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) regions of the medial prefrontal cortex to response inhibition. The present study tested the effects of separate neurotoxic lesions of the PL or IL on a serial feature negative discrimination task (negative occasion setting). Rats received training sessions consisting of 16 trials: on 4 trials in each session, a tone was presented and followed by food reward; on the other 12 trials the tone was preceded by a visual stimulus and not reinforced. The results indicate that PL but not IL is necessary for learning the discrimination. We then tested the effects of these lesions on rats that were first extensively trained in the task. Rats that had been trained for 30 days before receiving PL or IL lesions were still able to perform the task as well as controls after surgery. Thus, PL lesions disrupt acquisition but not performance of a serial feature negative discrimination.
大鼠的内侧前额叶皮质在认知功能的许多方面发挥作用，包括抑制性学习形式。最近的研究表明，内侧前额叶皮质的前边缘（PL）区和下边缘（IL）区在反应抑制中的作用存在异质性。本研究测试了PL或IL单独的神经毒性损伤对系列特征负性辨别任务（负性情境设定）的影响。大鼠接受由16次试验组成的训练：每次训练中有4次试验，呈现一个音调，随后给予食物奖励；在其他12次试验中，音调之前有一个视觉刺激且不给予强化。结果表明，学习这种辨别需要PL而非IL。然后我们测试了这些损伤对首先在该任务中进行广泛训练的大鼠的影响。在接受PL或IL损伤前已经训练30天的大鼠在手术后仍能像对照组一样完成任务。因此，PL损伤会破坏系列特征负性辨别的习得，但不会破坏其表现。
