Neurotoxic lesion of anteromedial/posterior parietal cortex disrupts spatial maze memory in blind rats

The primary visual cortex of rats is surrounded laterally (in Oc2L) and medially (in Oc2M) by several peristriate visual areas. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that bilateral lesions in Oc2L result in visual pattern discrimination deficit, and in failure to solve a conditional discrimination which requires figure-background association. In contrast, neurotoxic lesions of the rostral part of Oc2M (which contains the anteromedial and anterior peristriate visual areas, collectively referred to as AM complex) result in deficits in visuospatial discrimination, and in disruptions in visual tasks involving spatial memory. The objective of this study was to behaviorally test the role of AM complex in a spatial memory task in absence of visual cues. For this purpose, we analyzed memory retention of Lashley III maze in blind rats after bilateral ibotenate lesions in AM complex, or in the primary visual cortex (V1, Oc1), to test the hypothesis that AM complex is essential for this cognitive task. The results showed a significant loss of memory retention of the maze in rats with lesions in AM complex, but not in rats with lesions in V1. Furthermore, the retention loss in rats with AM complex lesions was positively and significantly correlated with the size of the lesion. The results indicate a critical role of AM complex in spatial memory mechanisms independent on visual cues. A probable homology of rat AM complex with the posterior parietal cortex of primates is discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.