Recent anatomical investigations have revealed that the striatum is an intrinsically heterogeneous structure that forms multiple parallel circuits with different cortical areas. The present series of experiments investigated the possibility that such anatomical diversity may promote functional differences between subregions of the rat dorsal striatum. Using different versions of the water maze and radial arm maze tasks, evidence is presented showing that the medial and lateral subregions of the caudate-putamen make distinct contributions to behaviors guided by either ambient spatial or discrete cues. The findings support a multiple subsystems view of dorsal striatal function. Specifically, the lateral (sensorimotor-innervated) caudate-putamen may mediate the process of habit formation based on simple stimulus-response associations, whereas the medial (limbic-innervated) caudate-putamen may contribute to the cognitive/spatial control of behavior in competitive response situations. Further evidence is presented suggesting that the medial caudate-putamen is functionally related to the hippocampal system. Together, these structures may form a functional limbic circuit that mediates the serial processing of cognitive/spatial information.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.34718 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Devan, Bryan David. |
| Contributors | White, Norman M. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001615543, proquestno: NQ44408, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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