Mamillothalamic tract transection blocks anterior thalamic training-induced neuronal plasticity and impairs discriminative offidance behavior in rabbits.

Rabbits with bilateral transecting lesions of the mamillothalamic tract, control (tract-sparing and sham) lesions, or no lesions, and chronic, fixed-position anterior ventral (AV) and medial dorsal (MD) thalamic and posterodorsal subicular complex unit recording electrodes were trained to step in an activity wheel in response to a 0.5 sec tone (CS+) in order to avoid a brief foot shock. The rabbits also learned to ignore a different tone (CS-) not predictive of shock. Behavioral acquisition was significantly retarded in rabbits with mamillothalamic tract transection compared to controls. When trained, transected rabbits failed to avoid the shock more often than controls. Mamillothalamic tract transection abolished and control lesions attenuated AV thalamic discriminative training-induced activity (i.e., development with training of greater discharges in response to the CS+ than to the CS-). Transection and control lesions attenuated AV thalamic excitatory training-induced activity (greater elicited activity during training than during unpaired tone-shock presentations before training) as well as AV thalamic "spontaneous" baseline unit activity. CS-elicited discharge magnitude was reduced by control lesions and it was further reduced by tract transecting lesions. Significant lesion-related changes were not found in the subicular or MD thalamic neuronal receptor. Mamillothalamic tract afferent information flow is thus essential for AV thalamic discriminative training-induced activity, excitatory training-induced activity, tone-elicited discharges and maintenance of conditioned avoidance responses. The effects of the control lesions suggested that afferents which course in parallel with and near the mamillothalamic tract may contribute to AV thalamic spontaneous activity and excitatory training-induced activity.