Amelioration of fornix lesion induced learning deficits by self-stimulation rewarding experience

Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) rewarding experience is known to modulate learning and memory and induce morphological and neurochemical changes in hippocampus. Therefore, we studied the effect of ICSS on the hippocampus-dependent operant and the spatial learning tasks in rats with bilateral electrolytic lesioning of fornix. Bilateral lesioning of fornix induced deficits in acquisition and performance of both the tasks, whereas exposure to 10 days of ICSS experience from ventral tegmental area reversed these behavioural deficits. Hence, we propose that the ICSS experience ameliorates the fornix lesion induced behavioural deficits, by inducing neuronal plasticity in the hippocampus which may act as a compensatory mechanism for the deficits produced by the lesioning of fornix.