Telencephalon ablation impairs goldfish allocentric spatial learning in a "hole-board" task.

The present work analyzes the involvement of telencephalon of goldfish in spatial strategies, using a procedure analogue to the hole-board task. With this aim, goldfish with sham operation or telencephalon ablation were trained to find a baited feeder within a twenty-five feeder matrix, which maintained stable spatial relationships relative to five peripheral landmarks. After training, different types of probe tests were conducted.

Neuropsychology of learning and memory in teleost fish.

Traditionally, brain and behavior evolution was viewed as an anagenetic process that occurred in successive stages of increasing complexity and advancement. Fishes, considered the most primitive vertebrates, were supposed to have a scarcely differentiated telencephalon, and limited learning capabilities. However, recent developmental, neuroanatomical, and functional data indicate that the evolution of brain and behavior may have been more conservative than previously thought.