Response–reinforcer associations after caudate-putamen lesions in the rat: Spatial discrimination and overshadowing–potentiation effects in instrumental learning.

Exp I, with 12 male hooded rats, demonstrated that Ss with caudate-putamen lesions exhibited an impairment in the acquisition and reversal of a spatial maze task when compared with unoperated control Ss. Exp II, with 24 Ss, investigated leverpress responding supported by a VI schedule in 3 groups of Ss: a group with caudate-putamen lesions, a group with lesions of the posterior cortex, and an unoperated control group. The presentation of a 0.5-sec, response-contingent light correlated with reinforcement generated an elevated response rate in the 2 operated groups but tended to suppress responding in the control group, perhaps by overshadowing the response–reinforcer relation. Only the group with cortical lesions maintained the elevated rate when the light was uncorrelated with food delivery. Exp III confirmed for these same Ss that caudate-putamen lesions produced a spatial learning deficit. No deficit was observed in the posterior cortex group. It is suggested that caudate-putamen lesions disrupt the mechanism underlying the response–reinforcer association on which spatial maze learning and free operant responding in part depend. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)