Amygdala lesions do not impair shock-probe avoidance retention performance

The present experiment used the shock-probe paradigm, a procedure usually used to assess anxiolytic processes, to assess memory in amygdala-lesioned rats. Rats were placed in a chamber that contained a probe protruding from 1 of 4 walls and were kept there for 15 min after they contacted the probe. For half the rats, the probe was electrified (2 mA). Four days later, sham or neurotoxic amygdala lesions were induced. Retention performance was assessed 8 days later by measuring the latency to contact the probe and the number of contact-induced shocks. The results indicated that, although shock-naive amygdala-lesioned rats were impaired on the 2nd shock-probe test, shock-experienced amygdala-lesioned rats were not. These data indicate that the memory of a shock experience, as indexed with a shock-probe avoidance response, is spared in rats with large amygdala lesions.