Spatial learninginduced Emphasis Type="Italic"e

Authors: K Emmanuvel Rajan A Ganesh S Dharaneedharan K Radhakrishnan

Publish Date: 2010/08/17

Volume: 37, Issue: 1, Pages: 153-159

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Abstract

The immediateearly gene egr1 expression was used to examine the neuron’s response in telencephalon of goldfish during spatial learning in small space Fishes were preexposed in the experimental apparatus and trained to pick food from the tray in a rectangularshaped arena The apparatus was divided into identical compartments comprising three gates to provide different spatial tasks After the fish learned to pass through the gate one two more gates were introduced one by one Fish made more number of attempts and took longer time P  005 to pass through the first gate than the gate two or three This active learning induces the expression of egr1 in telencephalon as established by western blot analysis Subsequently the fish learn quickly to cross the similar type of second and third gate and make fewer errors with a corresponding decline in the level of egr1 expression As the fish learned to pass through all the three gates third gate was replaced by modified gate three Interestingly the level of egr1 expression increased again when the fish exhibit a high exploratory behavior to cross the modified gate three The present study shows that egr1 expression is induced in the telencephalon of goldfish while intensively acquiring geometric spatial information to pass through the gatesWe thank the editor and anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions which helped to improve the manuscript We are also grateful to Prof Anttenieta La Terza UNICAM Italy for the language editing of the manuscript This work was supported by a grantin aid 2006/20/37/3/BRNS/2377/2006 to KER from Department of Atomic Energy Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences Govt of India

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