Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.

Object-place paired associate learning has been used to test hypotheses regarding the neurobiological basis of memory in rodents. Much of this work has focused on the role of limbic and hippocampal-parahippocampal regions, as well as the use of spatial information derived from allothetic visual stim...

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Main Authors: Lilliana M Sanchez, Shannon M Thompson, Benjamin J Clark
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5033391?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-dd668037f60f44b49f36a2d169abed892020-11-25T02:10:40ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01119e016310210.1371/journal.pone.0163102Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.Lilliana M SanchezShannon M ThompsonBenjamin J ClarkObject-place paired associate learning has been used to test hypotheses regarding the neurobiological basis of memory in rodents. Much of this work has focused on the role of limbic and hippocampal-parahippocampal regions, as well as the use of spatial information derived from allothetic visual stimuli to determine location in an environment. It has been suggested that idiothetic self-motion (vestibular) signals and internal representations of directional orientation might play an important role in disambiguating between spatial locations when forming object-place associations, but this hypothesis has not been explicitly tested. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between allothetic (i.e., distal and proximal cues) and vestibular stimuli on performance of an object-place paired-associate task. The paired-associate task was composed of learning to discriminate between an identical pair of objects presented in 180° opposite arms of a radial arm maze. Thus, animals were required to select a particular object on the basis of spatial location (i.e., maze arm). After the animals acquired the object-place rule, a series of probe tests determined that rats utilize self-generated vestibular cues to discriminate between the two maze arms. Further, when available, animals showed a strong preference for local proximal cues associated with the maze. Together, the work presented here supports the establishment of an object-place task that requires both idiothetic and allothetic stimulus sources to guide choice behavior, and which can be used to further investigate the dynamic interactions between neural systems involved in pairing sensory information with spatial locations.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5033391?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Lilliana M Sanchez
Shannon M Thompson
Benjamin J Clark
spellingShingle Lilliana M Sanchez
Shannon M Thompson
Benjamin J Clark
Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Lilliana M Sanchez
Shannon M Thompson
Benjamin J Clark
author_sort Lilliana M Sanchez
title Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
title_short Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
title_full Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
title_fullStr Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Proximal, Distal, and Vestibular Frames of Reference in Object-Place Paired Associate Learning in the Rat.
title_sort influence of proximal, distal, and vestibular frames of reference in object-place paired associate learning in the rat.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2016-01-01
description Object-place paired associate learning has been used to test hypotheses regarding the neurobiological basis of memory in rodents. Much of this work has focused on the role of limbic and hippocampal-parahippocampal regions, as well as the use of spatial information derived from allothetic visual stimuli to determine location in an environment. It has been suggested that idiothetic self-motion (vestibular) signals and internal representations of directional orientation might play an important role in disambiguating between spatial locations when forming object-place associations, but this hypothesis has not been explicitly tested. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between allothetic (i.e., distal and proximal cues) and vestibular stimuli on performance of an object-place paired-associate task. The paired-associate task was composed of learning to discriminate between an identical pair of objects presented in 180° opposite arms of a radial arm maze. Thus, animals were required to select a particular object on the basis of spatial location (i.e., maze arm). After the animals acquired the object-place rule, a series of probe tests determined that rats utilize self-generated vestibular cues to discriminate between the two maze arms. Further, when available, animals showed a strong preference for local proximal cues associated with the maze. Together, the work presented here supports the establishment of an object-place task that requires both idiothetic and allothetic stimulus sources to guide choice behavior, and which can be used to further investigate the dynamic interactions between neural systems involved in pairing sensory information with spatial locations.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5033391?pdf=render
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