Preserved anterograde and retrograde memory of rapidly acquired olfactory discrminations after neurotoxic hippocampal lesions

A forced-choice discrimination paradigm was used in two experiments, to evaluate retrograde and anterograde amnesia in rats after hippocampal ablation. In a within-subjects design (Experiment 1), rats were trained on a set of 10 olfactory discriminations 4 weeks before surgery and on a separate set of 10 discriminations 1 week before surgery. In a mixed design (Experiment 2), rats were trained on olfactory discriminations in one of three conditions: condition 1 (10 discriminations at 4 weeks before surgery); condition 2 (10 discriminations at 1 week before surgery); or condition 3 (10 discriminations at 4 weeks before surgery and 10 discriminations at 1 week before surgery). Discriminations in both experiments were rapidly learned, requiring 7-10 trials to reach criterion. After training, half of the rats in each condition received bilateral neurotoxic lesions of the hippocampus, and the other half received sham surgery. One week after surgery, all rats were given a retention test, consisting of a single critical trial for each discrimination. In both experiments, rats with selective hippocampal lesions exhibited preserved retention of these olfactory discriminations with no observable retention gradient. A postoperative acquisition test for two new discriminations indicated that anterograde memory was also preserved, while a postoperative test of spatial learning in the Morris water maze confirmed that the hippocampal lesions impaired spatial learning. Together, these experiments refute the contention that the hippocampus is requisite for (non-spatial) olfactory memory consolidation, storage, or access, despite the condition that the information be rapidly acquired.