V-034 | Egocentric turn as a Navigational Strategy in Amphibians: a Study on its Neural Basis

Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Sofia Judith Barmak | Email: sofiabarmak@gmail.com

Sofia Judith Barmak^1°2°, Rubén Nestor Muzio^1°2°,María Florencia Daneri^1°2°

^1° Grupo de Aprendizaje y Cognición Comparada, Laboratorio de Biología del Comportamiento (IBYME-CONICET)
^2° Instituto de Investigaciones, Facultad de Psicología (UBA)

Spatial cognition is a highly relevant skill that involves the ability to orient and navigate in
space to obtain the necessary resources for living. This ability is present in multiple
zoological species, suggesting it is highly conserved throughout evolution. With the aim of
better understanding this behavior, our laboratory uses an amphibian model, which has a
brain structure known as the medial pallium, homologous to the mammalian hippocampal
formation. The use of amphibians as a model enables us to explore neural control of
behavior without strong cortical modulation and to study the evolutionary changes in
vertebrate brain structures and functions. In this study, neuronal activation in the primitive
hippocampus of the terrestrial toad Rhinella arenarum was measured after learning a
spatial task. Subjects were trained in a T-maze where they learned to orient themselves
turning towards the location of the reward. Once the learning criterion was achieved the
brains were histologically analyzed using the AgNOR technique. Preliminary results
revealed that the medial pallium presents an increased activity compared to other brain
areas. This suggests that the medial pallium is involved in spatial orientation in
amphibians, just like the hippocampus is involved in mammals.