Dissociation between conditioned taste aversion and radial maze learning following seizure-induced multifocal brain damage: quantitative tests of serial vs. parallel circuit models of memory.

Multivariate analyses between conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and radial maze acquisition (RMA) scores and percentages of neuronal dropout within thalamic and telencephalic structures were completed for rats in which overt seizures had been evoked following a single systemic injection of lithium/pilocarpine. Despite multifocal damage, only the amount of damage within the hippocampus (CA1) and the basolateral amygdala was most strongly associated with attenuated CTA, whereas damage within the mediodorsal thalamus was primarily associated with RMA. There was no significant correlation between CTA or RMA. Multiple regression analyses for specific Paxinos and Watson structures and their traditional aggregates supported more precise delineation of neuronal substrates of learning/memory and a multimodal (parallel) model for these processes.