Dissociation of place and cue learning by telencephalic ablation in goldfish

This study examined the spatial strategies used by goldfish (Carassius aura tus) to find a goal in a 4-arm maze and the involvement of the telencephalo n in this spatial learning. Intact and telencephalon-ablated goldfish were trained to find food in an arm placed in a constant room location and signa led by a local visual cue (mixed place-cue procedure). Both groups learned the task, but they used different learning strategies. Telencephalon-ablate d goldfish learned the task more quickly and made fewer errors to criterion than controls. Probe trials revealed that intact goldfish could use either a place or a cue strategy, whereas telencephalon-ablated goldfish learned only a cue strategy. The results offer additional evidence that place and c ue learning in fish are subserved by different neural substrates and that t he telencephalon of the teleost fish, or some unspecified structure within it, is important for spatial learning and memory in a manner similar to the hippocampus of mammals and birds.