Behavioral effect of local cooling in temporal lobe of monkeys.

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Abstract
Five monkeys were trained to remember visual stimuli over delays of 0, 15, 30 and 45 s. One temporal lobe was removed, and guide tubes were implanted over the other. Small reversible functional cold lesions [41] were made in and around the intact temporal lobe while the animals performed the memory task. During testing, the animals were run 160 trials, alternating between 20 control trials with the probe at body temperature and 20 experimental trials with the metal tip at -6.degree. C. At most probe placements, the performance of the animals during experimental trials was identical to that of control trials. At some placements, there was a clear drop in performance at all delays during coaling, at others only the long delays were affected by the cold; and at 2 placements not in the temporal lobe, the cold produced a drop in performance at only the short delays. Most of the loci where the cold disrupted performance of the task were in the inferotemporal gyri (IT), and most of these were restricted to the anterior 9 mm of the temporal tip. There were 13 placements in IT posterior to this area, and only 2 of these were effective. Performance was disrupted at all delays at these 2 loci. Of 14 placements, 12 produced a deficit anterior to Horsley-Clarke level 10; the 2 that did not were on the border between the effective anterior zone and ineffective posterior zone. Five of the anterior placements disrupted performance at all delays; 7 produced effects concentrated at the longer delays. The behavioral consequences of cooling were completely reversible. Where the cold produced an effect, performance returned to normal when the cooling was stopped. The posterior IT placements that produced an effect must have been on the pathway to the anterior temporal area. An effect analogous to the human amnesia that spares immediate memory was obtained from some placements in anterior white matter. Anterior IT may be the temporary store for the kind of visual stimuli that were used in this experiment.

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