Excitotoxic lesions of the pre- and parasubiculum disrupt object recognition and spatial memory processes

Rats with bilateral ibotenic acid lesions centered on the pre- and parasubiculum and control rats were tested in a series of spatial memory and object recognition memory tasks. Lesioned rats were severely impaired relative to controls in both the reference and working memory versions of the water maze task and displayed a delay-dependent deficit in a delayed nonmatch to place procedure conducted in the T-maze. Lesioned rats also displayed reduced exploration in a novel environment, and performance was altered in an object recognition procedure as compared with the control group. These findings indicate that the pre- and parasubiculum plays an important role in the processing of both object recognition and spatial memory.