The role of cues and the hippocampus in home base behaviour
Files
Date
2004
Authors
Hines, Dustin J.
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2004
Abstract
The thesis examines the ability of animals to construct a home base. The home
base is a point in space where animals rear, groom, and circle and is a primary element in
organized spatial behaviour (Eilam and Golani 1989). Once animals establish a home
base, they make outward trips and stops, and after a series of trips and stops they return
again to the home base. The home base behaviour of animals acts as a platform for asking
questions about the cognitive organization of an environment. The thesis describes five
main findings. Control and hippocampectomized animals use (1) proximal and (2) distal
cues to form a home base and organize their behaviour. (3) Control and olfactory
bulbectomized animals form home bases in the dark where as hippocampectomized
animals are impaired suggesting self-movement but not olfactory cues play a role in
home base behaviour. A final set of experiments demonstrated that control and
hippocampectomized animals learn the position of (4) proximal and (5) distal cues so that
in the cue's absence, animals still form a home base at that position. The demonstration
that a central feature of exploratory behaviour, establishing a home base, is preserved in
hippocampectomized rats in relation to proximal, distal, and conditioned visual cues -
reveals that exploratory behaviour remains organized after hippocampal lesions. The
inability of hippocampectomized rats to form a virtual home base in the absence of visual
cues is discussed in relation to the idea that the hippocampus contributes to inertial
behaviour that may be dependent upon self-movement cues.
Description
xv, 232 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic , Territoriality (Zoology) -- Research , Spatial behavior in animals -- Research , Hippocampus (Brain) -- Physiology -- Research , Rats as laboratory animals