Ce. Ormsby et al., LONG-TERM-MEMORY RETRIEVAL DEFICITS OF LEARNED TASTE-AVERSIONS ARE AMELIORATED BY CORTICAL FETAL BRAIN IMPLANTS, Behavioral neuroscience, 112(1), 1998, pp. 172-182
In this study, the effects that fetal brain implants have on the abili
ty to retrieve the memory for a previously acquired conditioned taste
aversion (CTA) in insular cortex (IC) lesioned rats were tested. Sever
al groups of rats were trained for a CTA, were lesioned in the IC 4 da
ys later, were implanted with different fetal cortical tissues, were t
reated or untreated with nerve growth factor (NGF), and then were test
ed for recall either 15 or 45 days later. Rats were then retrained and
tested with a different taste and in the inhibitory avoidance (IA) ta
sk. All implanted animals recovered the retrieval of CTAs learned befo
re IC lesions; however, only the homotopic IC implants at 45 days or N
GF supplemented at 15 days induced recovery of the ability to learn CT
A. The latter effect was also true for IA learning. The results sugges
t that the brain mechanisms for recovery of memory functions are diffe
rent from those of learning abilities.