Basal Ganglia, Instrumental and Spatial Learning

  • Jane A. Mitchell
  • Geoffrey Hall
Chapter
Part of the NATO ASI Series book series (ASID, volume 37)

Abstract

Basal ganglia disorders in humans (e.g., Parkinson’s disease) are associated with disturbances of movement and in non-humans there is evidence for similar disturbances following basal ganglia transmitter disruption (see, e.g., Divac & Öberg, 1979; Langston, 1985). In addition to their obvious importance as a motor system the basal ganglia are also thought of as a spatial system. There have been a large number of behavioural investigations on the basal ganglia (see Divac & Öberg, 1979) and a spatial role is suggested by demonstrations that lesions of the caudate nucleus disrupt performance on tasks with a spatial component (e.g., delayed response, delayed spatial alternation, spatial reversal). The contribution of the basal ganglia to spatial behaviour is not clear, however, because performance is also disrupted on tasks with no spatial component (e.g., schedules of reinforcement, non-spatial reversal, go-nogo discrimination). Moreover, with a radial arm maze task, rats with caudate lesions have been reported to show no deficit (Becker, Walker, & Olton, 1980), or impaired performance, in a version of the maze designed to minimize distal cues (Winocur, 1980).

Keywords

Basal Ganglion Caudate Nucleus Spatial Task Maze Task Probe Session 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht 1987

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jane A. Mitchell
    • 1
  • Geoffrey Hall
    • 2
  1. 1.University of ManchesterUK
  2. 2.University of YorkUK

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