Effects of Bilateral Prelimbic Cortex Inactivation on Contextual Biconditional Discrimination Memory Retrieval in Adult Long-Evans Rats
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The prelimbic (PL) subregion of the medial prefrontal cortex has been widely implicated in the contextual control of appetitive and aversive conditioning through studies of context-induced reinstatement of drug seeking and contextual fear conditioning. However, the role of the PL in mediating contextual processing in appetitively motivated tasks without the involvement of abused substances remains underexplored. Thus, the present study sought to investigate the role of the PL in this process using a previously reported contextual biconditional discrimination (CBD) memory task. We examined the effects of temporary post-acquisition pharmacological inactivation of the PL on CBD memory retrieval and observed robust deficits in contextual memory retrieval following PL inactivation. Our data provide novel insight into the role of the PL in contextual processing in appetitively motivated tasks in the intact brain, indicating a more general role for the PL in appetitive and aversive contextual processing in the drug-free brain.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Sadia Riaz
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2612663065