Involvement of the retrosplenial cortex in the processing of the temporal aspect of episodic-like memory in rats

Abstract To investigate the effects of retrosplenial cortex (RSC) lesions on episodic-like memory, we used four types of object recognition tasks. What task examined memory of object identities. Where task examined memory of object locations. When task examined memory of the temporal order of presented objects. Episodic task examined the integrated memory of the identity, location, and temporal order of presented objects. Rats with the RSC lesions preferred novel objects in the What and Where tasks, whereas they showed no such preference in the When and Episodic tasks, suggesting that rats with the RSC lesions have deficits in memory for temporal order and that this might cause deficits in episodic-like memory.