Impairment in a T-maze task following unilateral lateral hypothalamic lesions.

Rats with unilateral LH lesions showed great difficulty performing a contraversive turn to escape shock in a T-maze. Rats that were required to turn to the side ipsilateral to the side of their lesion did not show this performance deficit. The impairment in contraversive responding was shown to dissipate over time. It is proposed that animals with LH lesions do not suffer learning disabilities in escape-avoidance tasks, but can not activate motor behavior directed toward the side contralateral to their lesion.