Selective attention dysfunctions in adult rats neonatally treated with 6-hydoxydopamine

Adult rats treated intracisternally with 6-hydroxydopamine during the perinatal period were trained on a black-white discrimination. Alterations in cue shape and cue location failed to selectively distinguish differences in response patterns for the treated animals. However, when irrelevant stimuli were added to the discriminative array, the 6-hydroxydopamine group evidenced marked impairment of performance throughout the period of distraction.