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Perceptual functions of perirhinal cortex in rats: zero-delay object recognition and simultaneous oddity discriminations

Bartko, Susan J., Winters, Boyer D., Cowell, Rosemary A., Saksida, Lisa M., Bussey, Timothy J. (2007) Perceptual functions of perirhinal cortex in rats: zero-delay object recognition and simultaneous oddity discriminations. Journal of Neuroscience, 27 (10). pp. 2548-2559. ISSN 0270-6474. (doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5171-06.2007) (KAR id:24043)

Abstract

The perirhinal cortex (PRh) is widely accepted as having an important role in object recognition memory in humans and animals. Contrary to claims that PRh mediates declarative memory exclusively, previous evidence suggests that PRh has a role in the perceptual processing of complex objects. In the present study, we conducted an examination of the possible role of PRh in perceptual function in rats.Weexamined whether bilateral excitotoxic lesions ofPRhorPPRh(perirhinal plus postrhinal cortices) in the rat would cause deficits in a zero-delay object-recognition task and a simultaneous oddity discrimination task. Both of these tasks measured spontaneous (untrained, unrewarded) behavior, and the stimuli in these experiments were manipulated to produce varying levels of perceptual difficulty. As predicted by simulations using a computational model, rats with PPRh lesions were impaired in object recognition when the stimuli to be discriminated were manipulated to share many features in common. Furthermore, rats with PPRh and PRh lesions were impaired in a simultaneous oddity discrimination task when the stimuli to be discriminated were manipulated explicitly to be more perceptually similar. These findings provide support for the idea that PRh in the rat is important for the perceptual processing of complex objects, in addition to its well established role in memory.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5171-06.2007
Uncontrolled keywords: feature ambiguity, medial temporal lobe, spontaneous object recognition, amnesia, PMFC model, ventral visual stream
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA 76 Software, computer programming,
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: Mark Wheadon
Date Deposited: 29 Mar 2010 12:11 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 10:03 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/24043 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Cowell, Rosemary A..

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