Ulrich K, Aitken P N, Abraham W C, Dalrymple-Alford J C, McNaughton N
Department of Psychology and Brain Health Research Centre, University of Otago, POB56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, POB4800, Ilam, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Behav Brain Res. 2014 Mar 15;261:56-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.12.002. Epub 2013 Dec 12.
Anterior thalamic (ATN) dysfunction produces memory deficits in rats and humans. The current study shows that, with a substantial delay between post-surgery tests, controls show repeated relearning on a spatial working memory task whereas rats with neurotoxic ATN lesions showed repeated relearning deficits. Rats were pre-trained to criterion, but not over trained, on the spatial task. ATN lesions produced the expected spatial memory and relearning deficits about two weeks post-surgery and again either one or 15 weeks later. Control rats also showed forgetting post-surgery and after a 15 week break, relearning the task on each occasion. Controls with only a 1 week break before their final re-test showed negligible forgetting. Thus, a short break between re-tests replicated previous findings with ATN lesions, but a long break allows repeated comparison of rates of learning from a common starting point in sham and ATN-lesioned animals, providing a useful paradigm for future testing of pro-cognitive treatments.
丘脑前核（ATN）功能障碍会导致大鼠和人类出现记忆缺陷。当前研究表明，在术后测试之间存在相当长的延迟时，对照组在空间工作记忆任务上表现出反复再学习，而患有神经毒性ATN损伤的大鼠则表现出反复再学习缺陷。大鼠在空间任务上先接受训练至标准，但未过度训练。ATN损伤在术后约两周产生了预期的空间记忆和再学习缺陷，并且在术后1周或15周时再次出现。对照大鼠在术后也表现出遗忘，在休息15周后，每次都重新学习该任务。在最后一次重新测试前仅休息1周的对照组显示出可忽略不计的遗忘。因此，重新测试之间的短暂休息重复了先前关于ATN损伤的研究结果，但长时间的休息允许从假手术和ATN损伤动物的共同起点重复比较学习率，为未来认知促进治疗的测试提供了一个有用的范例。
