FOOTSHOCK FACILITATES THE EXPRESSION OF AVERSIVELY MOTIVATED MEMORY IN RATS GIVEN POST-TRAINING AMYGDALA BASOLATERAL COMPLEX LESIONS

We previously reported that increased training in an escape task parti ally attenuates the memory impairment produced by large amygdala lesio ns induced 1 week following training. The present study examined the e ffect of amount of preoperative training on the retention of rats with lesions restricted to the amygdala basolateral complex. Rats received 1 or 10 training trials in a footshock-motivated escape task and 1 we ek later sham lesions or neurotoxic lesions of the basolateral complex . Four days after recovery from the surgery they were tested for inhib itory avoidance retention and then 2 days later given continuous multi ple trial inhibitory avoidance training (CMIA) in the same apparatus. The basolateral complex lesions significantly decreased the retention latencies of rats given 1 or 10 trials. However, following administrat ion of footshock on the CMIA task, the performance of the lesioned rat s reflected the degree of preoperative escape training. The basolatera l complex lesions also increased open field locomotor activity, an eff ect that may have contributed to the shorter retention latencies in le sioned animals. These findings indicate that an intact amygdala basola teral complex is not critical for the retention of the escape training .