| Project/Area Number |
11410022
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
実験系心理学
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
ICHITANI Yukio University of Tsukuba, Institute of Psychology, Associate Professor, 心理学系, 助教授 (80176289)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
NONAKA Hiroi University of Tsukuba, Institute of Psychology, Research Associate, 心理学系, 助手 (30311591)
IWASAWA Tsuneo University of Tsukuba, Institute of Psychology, Professor, 心理学系, 教授 (70092509)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2001
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
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| Keywords | striatum / learning / memory / γ-aminobutyric acid / GABA receptor / rat |
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| Research Abstract |
The striatum has been suggested to be involved not only in the sensory or motor control but also in cognitive function such as memory and learning. We have investigated the effects of striatal kainic acid lesions, which induce selective neuronal cell death in the striatum, on various kinds of learning behavior. Rats with striatal lesions showed severe deficits in spatial learning tasks though they did not show any deficits in discrimination learning and classical conditioning. The present study investigated the mechanism of learning deficits in these animals and the role of striatal neurons, especially striatal GABAergic neurons, in learning and memory.
GABA_A agonist systemically administered before each trial significantly improved the performance of Morris water maze and radial maze tasks in rats with striatal kainic acid lesions, while GABA_B agonist did not. This suggests that GABA_A receptors in the brain are involved in the learning deficits of striatal lesioned animals. Since there are three areas to which striatal GABA neurons project, we then tested the effects of microinjection of GABA_A antagonist on radial maze behavior using normal rats previously trained in this task. As a result, injection into the substantia nigra pars reticulata most distinctly increased the number of errors, and injection into the striatum also had significant effects. Taken together it was suggested that a neural circuit containing the striatum, especially the strionigral GABAergic neuron system, plays an important role in performance of spatial memory tasks.
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