The anterior thalamus is a critical component of the brain’s memory systems. It is interconnected with the hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex and shares some of the same functions. Recent findings suggest that the anterior thalamus is importantly involved in contextual memory. Ongoing projects will determine whether input from the anterior thalamus is critical for normal context representations in the hippocampus.
Figure 1.
Control rats that learned two lists of odors in different contexts did not show interference (saline different, list 1 = list 2 performance, t (8) = .844, p = 0.423). In contrast, rats that learned two lists in the same context showed significant interference (saline same preformance declined from list 1 to list 2, t (8) = -3.24, p < 0.05). Rats with anterior thalamic lesions showed significant interference, even when they learned the two lists in different contexts (muscimol different: t (5) = -5.892, p < 0.005, muscimol same: t (6) = -4.229, p < 0.01).
Figure 2.
Guide cannula were implanted bilaterally. Representative infusion locations are shown above (circles represent same context groups, squares different; red represents muscimol and black saline, adapted from Paxinos and Watson, 4th ed., 1998). Thirty minutes prior to the relevant training session, 0.2 – 0.3 μl (0.18 μg/ml) of the GABAA agonist muscimol or saline was infused into each hemisphere.
Law, L. M., & Smith, D. M. (2012). The anterior thalamus is critical for overcoming interference in a context-dependent odor discrimination task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 126(5), 710–719. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029698 