A ROLE FOR ACETYLCHOLINE IN SPATIAL MEMORY IN TURTLES

The present research was undertaken to determine whether acetylcholine plays a role in memory for a maze in turtles. Cholinergic cells have been observed in the basal forebrain of turtles, and the basal forebra in of turtles projects to the dorsal cortex, a region that has been im plicated in associative function. In Experiment 1, turtles were traine d on an X-maze for water reward and then given lesions of the dorsal c ortex or basal forebrain or sham lesions and retested postoperatively on the maze. Both dorsal cortex and basal forebrain lesions impaired p erformance on the maze. In Experiment 2, turtles were trained on the m aze and then given saline, scopolamine, or methylscopolamine on a 1-da y retention test. Scopolamine in the higher doses impaired maze perfor mance on the test day, but methylscopolamine did not. The highest dose of scopolamine had no effect on measures of general activity, showing that the effects of the drug were specific to the learned task.