Effects of trimethyltin on acquisition and reversal of a light-dark discrimination by rats

The behavioral deficits produced by trimethyltin (TMT) are usually attributed to the hippocampal damage caused by this toxicant. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of TMT administration on acquisition and reversal of a discrete trial light-dark discrimination. Acquisition of this task is impaired by hippocampal lesions but the effects of TMT on it are not known. Forty-five days after some of the rats were given one of three doses of TMT, adult, male Long-Evans rats were given 100 trials per day for 20 days to acquire a discrete trial lever press discrimination with lit cue lights located above the correct lever. At the end of this time the contingencies were reversed and the rats were given 30 more days of training. No significant group differences occurred during the first 20 days. A significant group effect was found for the 30 days of reversal training. The rats given the highest dose of TMT (6 mg/kg) obtained significantly more reinforcements during reversal training than the other groups. Because surgical hippocampal lesions generally impair both acquisition and reversal of visual discriminations, these data were unexpected and suggest that other factors than hippocampal damage enter into the behavioral effects of TMT.