Recovery of function after cingulate cortex injury in rats

Abstract

The current studies investigate the behavioral and anatomical changes after lesions at different ages of the cingulate cortex. Rats received lesions of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCing) or the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex (Total) at: postnatal day 4 (P4); day 10 (P10), or in adulthood (P120). Rats were trained in the Morris water maze, the Whishaw reaching task, conditioned taste aversion (CTA), and their activity was monitored over 48 hours. The general finding was a significant behavioral recovery on P10 animals regardless the size of the lesion. This recovery was associated with an increase in dendritic arborization in P10 animals with the PCing removed and a partial regeneration of the midline tissue in the Total P10 animals. These results suggest that damage to the cingulate cortex at P10 is associated with substantial behavioral and anatomical plasticity and that removal of the frontal midline tissue stimulates a regenerative process in more posterior cortex that does not occur otherwise.