Source Paper
Selective Roles for Hippocampal, Prefrontal Cortical, and Ventral Striatal Circuits in Radial-Arm Maze Tasks With or Without a Delay
Stan B. Floresco, Jeremy K. Seamans, Anthony G. Phillips
Journal of Neuroscience • 1997
Source Paper
Stan B. Floresco, Jeremy K. Seamans, Anthony G. Phillips
Journal of Neuroscience • 1997
The hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the ventral striatum form interconnected neural circuits that may underlie aspects of spatial cognition and memory. In the present series of experiments, we investigated functional interactions between these areas in rats during the performance of delayed and nondelayed spatially cued radial-arm maze tasks. The two-phase delayed task consisted of a training phase that provided rats with information about where food would be located on the maze 30 min later during a test phase. The single-phase nondelayed task was identical to the test phase of the delayed task, but in the absence of a training phase rats lacked previous knowledge of the location of food on the maze. Transient inactivation of the ventral CA1/subiculum (vSub) by a bilateral injection of lidocaine disrupted performance on both tasks. Lidocaine injections into the vSub on one side of the brain and the prefrontal cortex on the other transiently disconnected these two brain regions and significantly impaired foraging during the delayed task but not the nondelayed task. Transient disconnections between the vSub and the nucleus accumbens produced the opposite effect, disrupting foraging during the nondelayed task but not during the delayed task. These data suggest that serial transmission of information between the vSub and the prefrontal cortex is required when trial-unique, short-term memory is used to guide prospective search behavior. In contrast, exploratory goal-directed locomotion in a novel situation not requiring previously acquired information about the location of food is dependent on serial transmission between the hippocampus and the nucleus accumbens. These results indicate that different aspects of spatially mediated behavior are subserved by separate, distributed limbic–cortical–striatal networks.
Objective: To investigate functional interactions between hippocampal, prefrontal cortical, and ventral striatal circuits in rats during delayed and nondelayed spatially cued radial-arm maze tasks, examining how different brain regions contribute to spatial memory and goal-directed behavior.
This is a Delayed Radial-Arm Maze Task protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 7 procedural steps, 1 equipment items, 2 materials. Extracted from a 1997 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
~1 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Training phase of delayed task • Delay interval • Test phase of delayed task
Primary readouts
Key equipment and reagents
Verified items
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Rats are placed on the radial-arm maze and provided with information about where food will be located. This phase establishes trial-unique, short-term memory of food locations.
Note: This is the first phase of the two-phase delayed task
“The two-phase delayed task consisted of a training phase that provided rats with information about where food would be located on the maze 30 min later during a test phase.”
A 30-minute delay period occurs between the training phase and test phase, during which rats must maintain memory of food locations.
Note: This delay tests short-term spatial memory retention
“The two-phase delayed task consisted of a training phase that provided rats with information about where food would be located on the maze 30 min later during a test phase.”
Rats are returned to the maze and must retrieve food from the locations learned during the training phase 30 minutes earlier.
Note: Performance depends on memory of training phase locations
“The two-phase delayed task consisted of a training phase that provided rats with information about where food would be located on the maze 30 min later during a test phase.”
Rats perform a single-phase task identical to the test phase of the delayed task, but without prior training phase. Rats must explore the maze to find food without previous knowledge of food locations.
Note: This task tests goal-directed exploratory behavior without reliance on previously acquired spatial information
“The single-phase nondelayed task was identical to the test phase of the delayed task, but in the absence of a training phase rats lacked previous knowledge of the location of food on the maze.”
Transient inactivation of the ventral CA1/subiculum region via bilateral lidocaine injection to assess its role in maze performance.
Note: This manipulation disrupted performance on both delayed and nondelayed tasks
“Transient inactivation of the ventral CA1/subiculum (vSub) by a bilateral injection of lidocaine disrupted performance on both tasks.”
Lidocaine injection into the ventral CA1/subiculum on one side of the brain combined with injection into the prefrontal cortex on the opposite side to transiently disconnect these two brain regions.
Note: This disconnection significantly impaired performance on the delayed task but not the nondelayed task
“Lidocaine injections into the vSub on one side of the brain and the prefrontal cortex on the other transiently disconnected these two brain regions and significantly impaired foraging during the delayed task but not the nondelayed task.”
Lidocaine injection into the ventral CA1/subiculum on one side of the brain combined with injection into the nucleus accumbens on the opposite side to transiently disconnect these two brain regions.
Note: This disconnection disrupted performance on the nondelayed task but not the delayed task, producing opposite effects compared to vSub-prefrontal cortex disconnection
“Transient disconnections between the vSub and the nucleus accumbens produced the opposite effect, disrupting foraging during the nondelayed task but not during the delayed task.”
This section explains what the experiment is doing, which readouts matter, what the data artifacts usually look like, and how the analysis should flow from raw capture to reported result.
To investigate functional interactions between hippocampal, prefrontal cortical, and ventral striatal circuits in rats during delayed and nondelayed spatially cued radial-arm maze tasks, examining how different brain regions contribute to spatial memory and goal-directed behavior.
Objective
To investigate functional interactions between hippocampal, prefrontal cortical, and ventral striatal circuits in rats during delayed and nondelayed spatially cued radial-arm maze tasks, examining how different brain regions contribute to spatial memory and goal-directed behavior.
Subjects
From paperrat • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified
Sample count
From paperNot specified
Cohort notes
From paperNot specified
Training phase of delayed task (Not specified)
Delay interval (30 minutes)
Test phase of delayed task (Not specified)
Nondelayed task performance (Not specified)
Performance on delayed radial-arm maze task (accuracy of food retrieval after 30-minute delay)
From paperNot specified in provided text
Artifact type
Endpoint measurements summarized by group or timepoint
Comparison focus
Compare endpoint magnitude between groups, timepoints, or both
Performance on nondelayed radial-arm maze task (exploratory foraging accuracy without prior training)
From paperNot specified in provided text
Artifact type
Endpoint measurements summarized by group or timepoint
Comparison focus
Compare endpoint magnitude between groups, timepoints, or both
Effects of ventral CA1/subiculum inactivation on both task types
From paperNot specified in provided text
Artifact type
Endpoint measurements summarized by group or timepoint
Comparison focus
Compare endpoint magnitude between groups, timepoints, or both
Effects of vSub-prefrontal cortex disconnection on delayed versus nondelayed task performance
From paperNot specified in provided text
Artifact type
Endpoint measurements summarized by group or timepoint
Comparison focus
Compare endpoint magnitude between groups, timepoints, or both
Performance on delayed radial-arm maze task (accuracy of food retrieval after 30-minute delay)
From paperRaw artifact
Per-sample or per-animal endpoint measurements collected during the experiment
Processed artifact
Structured table with cleaned measurements ready for comparison
Final reported form
Summary statistics and between-group or across-timepoint comparisons
Performance on nondelayed radial-arm maze task (exploratory foraging accuracy without prior training)
From paperRaw artifact
Per-sample or per-animal endpoint measurements collected during the experiment
Processed artifact
Structured table with cleaned measurements ready for comparison
Final reported form
Summary statistics and between-group or across-timepoint comparisons
Effects of ventral CA1/subiculum inactivation on both task types
From paperRaw artifact
Per-sample or per-animal endpoint measurements collected during the experiment
Processed artifact
Structured table with cleaned measurements ready for comparison
Final reported form
Summary statistics and between-group or across-timepoint comparisons
Effects of vSub-prefrontal cortex disconnection on delayed versus nondelayed task performance
From paperRaw artifact
Per-sample or per-animal endpoint measurements collected during the experiment
Processed artifact
Structured table with cleaned measurements ready for comparison
Final reported form
Summary statistics and between-group or across-timepoint comparisons
Acquisition
Collect raw experimental outputs with enough metadata to preserve sample identity, condition, and timing.
Preprocessing / cleaning
Not specified in provided text
Scoring or quantification
Quantify the primary readouts for this experiment: Performance on delayed radial-arm maze task (accuracy of food retrieval after 30-minute delay); Performance on nondelayed radial-arm maze task (exploratory foraging accuracy without prior training); Effects of ventral CA1/subiculum inactivation on both task types; Effects of vSub-prefrontal cortex disconnection on delayed versus nondelayed task performance.
Statistical comparison
Statistical method not yet structured for this page.
Reporting output
Report representative outputs alongside summary comparisons for Performance on delayed radial-arm maze task (accuracy of food retrieval after 30-minute delay), Performance on nondelayed radial-arm maze task (exploratory foraging accuracy without prior training), Effects of ventral CA1/subiculum inactivation on both task types, Effects of vSub-prefrontal cortex disconnection on delayed versus nondelayed task performance.
Source links and direct wording from the methods section for validation and deeper review.
Citation
Stan B. Floresco et al. (1997). Selective Roles for Hippocampal, Prefrontal Cortical, and Ventral Striatal Circuits in Radial-Arm Maze Tasks With or Without a Delay. Journal of Neuroscience
Training phase of delayed task • Protocol step
“The two-phase delayed task consisted of a training phase that provided rats with information about where food would be located on the maze 30 min later during a test phase.”
Nondelayed task performance • Protocol step
“The single-phase nondelayed task was identical to the test phase of the delayed task, but in the absence of a training phase rats lacked previous knowledge of the location of food on the maze.”
Bilateral lidocaine injection into ventral CA1/subiculum • Protocol step
“Transient inactivation of the ventral CA1/subiculum (vSub) by a bilateral injection of lidocaine disrupted performance on both tasks.”
Unilateral disconnection of ventral CA1/subiculum and prefrontal cortex • Protocol step
“Lidocaine injections into the vSub on one side of the brain and the prefrontal cortex on the other transiently disconnected these two brain regions and significantly impaired foraging during the delayed task but not the nondelayed task.”
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Evidence
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Canonical Sync
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