The role of cues and the hippocampus in home base behaviour
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Date
2004
Authors
Hines, Dustin J.
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2004
Abstract
The thesis examines the ability of animals to construct a home base. The home
base is a point in space where animals rear, groom, and circle and is a primary element in
organized spatial behaviour (Eilam and Golani 1989). Once animals establish a home
base, they make outward trips and stops, and after a series of trips and stops they return
again to the home base. The home base behaviour of animals acts as a platform for asking
questions about the cognitive organization of an environment. The thesis describes five
main findings. Control and hippocampectomized animals use (1) proximal and (2) distal
cues to form a home base and organize their behaviour. (3) Control and olfactory
bulbectomized animals form home bases in the dark where as hippocampectomized
animals are impaired suggesting self-movement but not olfactory cues play a role in
home base behaviour. A final set of experiments demonstrated that control and
hippocampectomized animals learn the position of (4) proximal and (5) distal cues so that
in the cue's absence, animals still form a home base at that position. The demonstration
that a central feature of exploratory behaviour, establishing a home base, is preserved in
hippocampectomized rats in relation to proximal, distal, and conditioned visual cues -
reveals that exploratory behaviour remains organized after hippocampal lesions. The
inability of hippocampectomized rats to form a virtual home base in the absence of visual
cues is discussed in relation to the idea that the hippocampus contributes to inertial
behaviour that may be dependent upon self-movement cues.
Description
xv, 232 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic , Territoriality (Zoology) -- Research , Spatial behavior in animals -- Research , Hippocampus (Brain) -- Physiology -- Research , Rats as laboratory animals