Hippocampectomy and response perseveration in the rat.

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Abstract
Animals [rats] with either bilateral ablations of the hippocampus or extensive bilateral neocortical lesions were compared with unoperated controls in their ability to perform repeated reversals of a position habit in a Y maze. Hippo-campectomized animals were severely impaired in their ability to give up the initially learned position habit, making significantly fewer reversals, more errors, and taking more trials to perform an initial reversal. Since no differences appeared in the hippocampectomized Ss'' ability to learn the original position habit, the deficit was interpreted as a reduction in behavioral flexibility and as supporting the response perseveration hypothesis.