Visual cues facilitate context discrimination in novel spatial learning paradigms

Episodic memory elicits specific firing patterns upon recall. Relevant memories associated with each episode (context) drive planning and decision behavior. The hippocampus (HPC), retrosplenial cortex (RSC), and anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) are three regions within the limbic system that are bidirectionally connected and associated with contextual memory. RSC has been characterized for spatial processing and sensory stimuli. However, little is known about how RSC integrates both stimuli to elicit context memory. Rodents were tested on two different learning paradigms, alternating context cheeseboard (ACC) and block context cheeseboard (BCC). Over 14 days, rats were evaluated for discrimination between visual cues. Rats were able to robustly maintain discrimination between contexts in the ACC paradigm. This validation of the novel spatial learning paradigm will be further implemented to assess coordination between HPC, RSC and ATN during contextual processing.