Reduced cytochrome oxidase activity in the retrosplenial cortex after lesions to the anterior thalamic nuclei.

Magdalena Mendez-Lopez, Jorge L. Arias, Bruno Bontempi, Mathieu Wolff
Behavioural Brain Research. 2013-08-01; 250: 264-273
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.04.052

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1. Behav Brain Res. 2013 Aug 1;250:264-73. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.04.052. Epub 2013
May 6.

Reduced cytochrome oxidase activity in the retrosplenial cortex after lesions to
the anterior thalamic nuclei.

Mendez-Lopez M(1), Arias JL, Bontempi B, Wolff M.

Author information:
(1)University of Zaragoza, Departamento de Psicología y Sociología, 44003 Teruel,
Spain.

The anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) make a critical contribution to hippocampal
system functions. Growing experimental work shows that the effects of ATN lesions
often resemble those of hippocampal lesions and both markedly reduce the
expression of immediate-early gene markers in the retrosplenial cortex, which
still appears normal by standard histological means. This study shows that
moderate ATN damage was sufficient to produce severe spatial memory impairment as
measured in a radial-arm maze. Furthermore, ATN rats exhibited reduced cytochrome
oxidase activity in the most superficial cortical layers of the granular
retrosplenial cortex, and, to a lesser extent, in the anterior cingulate cortex.
By contrast, no change in cytochrome oxidase activity was observed in other
limbic cortical regions or in the hippocampal formation. Altogether our results
indicate that endogenous long-term brain metabolic capacity within the granular
retrosplenial cortex is compromised by even limited ATN damage.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.04.052
PMID: 23660649 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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