M. Gallo et A. Candido, DORSAL HIPPOCAMPAL-LESIONS IMPAIR BLOCKING BUT NOT LATENT INHIBITION OF TASTE-AVERSION LEARNING IN RATS, Behavioral neuroscience, 109(3), 1995, pp. 413-425
The aim of the present experiments was to study the effect of nonselec
tive electrolytic lesions of the rat dorsal hippocampus on 2 learning
phenomena: the L. J. Kamin (1969) blocking effect and latent inhibitio
n of taste aversion learning. Bilateral dorsal hippocampal lesions sel
ectively impaired blocking induced by 1 saccharin-lithium chloride pai
ring previous to 1 serial compound (saccharin-cider vinegar)-lithium p
airing, but lesions had no effect on latent inhibition of a saline ave
rsion, induced by 6 saline preexposures, in the same group of animals.
Moreover, dorsal hippocampal lesions did not affect latent inhibition
of saccharin-conditioned aversion induced by 1 or 6 preexposures. It
is argued that blocking and latent inhibition of taste aversion learni
ng do not share a common neural mechanism.