Over the past five decades spatial behavior has been a subject of research
interest in psychology and neuroscience, in part based on philosophical theories
of mental spatial representations. In order to continue uncovering the facts
regarding spatial behavior, the focus of this thesis was on the contribution of
entry point and visual inputs to the organization of exploratory locomotion and
spatial representation in the rat. Despite the contribution of the hippocampus to
spatial abilities, the exploratory locomotion is still visually organized in rats with
damage to the hippocampus. On the other hand, recent studies have
demonstrated a contribution of visual areas to the spatial ability of the rat.
Nevertheless, the contribution of visual cortex to the organization of exploratory
locomotion has not been studied in an open field. The experiments in this thesis
were designed to characterize the organization of exploratory locomotion to the
point of entry and/or visual cues. Rats were started from the edge or center of an
open table near or on which a salient object could be placed. The main findings
were that rats organized their exploratory locomotion to their point of entry and
modified their behavior as they encountered objects. Also, rats with damage to
visual cortex displayed an extra-attachment to the visual objects and in contrast
to controls did not expand their exploratory locomotion with time. The results are
discussed with respect to the centrality of the entry point in the organization of
exploratory locomotion and the neural network that control visual exploration in
the rat. / xiii, 220 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. --
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/665 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Nemati, Farshad, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Whishaw, Ian |
| Publisher | 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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