Date of Award
Fall 1999
Project Type
Dissertation
Program or Major
Psychology
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
First Advisor
Robert G Mair
Abstract
Three experiments systematically examined the effects of reversibly inactivating intralaminar nuclei and ventral striatum with infusions of lidocaine. The ventral striatum and the intralaminar nucleus were targeted based on deficits in accuracy and speed of responding in delayed conditional discrimination tasks associated with permanent lesions of these structures (Mair, Burk and Porter, 1998).
The present research showed that a 4.0 mul of 2% lidocaine caused impairments accuracy, but not in response speed, in a match to sample task trained in the lever box without delays when the internal cannula projects 0.5 mm from the guide cannula. One microliter of 2%, 4% or 8% lidocaine caused impairments in accuracy, but not in response speed, in a match to sample task trained with delays of 1.0, 3.0, 8.0 and 13.0 seconds, when the internal cannula projects 2.0 mm. beyond the guide cannula. Taken together, we conclude that the specific parameters of lidocaine delivery have an impact on deficits in this task. This impact is likely to be dependent on the size of the inactivated area of the intralaminar nucleus and the ventral striatum.
Recommended Citation
Porter, Mary Christine, "The effects of reversible inactivation by lidocaine of ventral striatum and intralaminar nucleus of the thalamus in match to sample tasks with and without delays trained in the lever box" (1999). Doctoral Dissertations. 2099.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2099