Effects of rat medial prefrontal cortex temporal inactivation on a delayed alternation task

To determine the involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in operant-type delayed alternation, microinjections of muscimol into the mPFC were used for temporal inactivation during behavioral tests in rats. The temporal mPFC inactivation showed effects related to both dorsal (decreased delay-dependent correct ratio, indicating working memory-related deficits) and ventral hippocampus inactivation (increased tendency to repeat errors) reported in our recent paper, without motor or sensory effects. These findings suggest that the mPFC integrates information from different hippocampal regions during a delayed alternation task. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.