Perirhinal cortex lesions in rats disrupt performance in a spatial DNMS task.

Rats with bilateral electrolytic lesions of the perirhinal cortex and sham operated control rats were tested in a spatially guided, delayed non match to sample task. Although perirhinal lesioned animals showed no deficit in acquisition of the task, a performance deficit was observed across longer delay intervals. These results indicate that the perirhinal cortex is a critical component of the network subserving working or declarative memory in the rat.