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. / xv, 232 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/646 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Hines, Dustin J, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Whishaw, Ian |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2004, Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Neuroscience |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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