Hello,

I stuck in two different perspectives.

In the study of Klur et al. (2009), they showed that ''in the acquisition trial of Morris Water Maze, inactivation of either the right or both hippocampi impaired selective searching for the escape platform, whereas left hippocampus inactivation had no effect. And after 6 days of learning (in the probe trial), only the right hippocampus was necessary to locate the platform on a learned water maze.'' They also indicated there are many more genes expressed in the right hippocampus in the rats that had learned the hidden platform location. Similarly, in the study of Shinohara et al. (2012), they showed that ''better spatial task performance was achieved by the mice which were forced to use the right hippocampus than those which were forced to use the left hippocampus.'' According to data that I've read and to studies, it has been proposed that spatial memories are acquired by the left hippocampus and then transferred to the right hippocampus for storage and retrieval.

However, there is also a different study of Shipton et al. (2014). They found that ''silencing the CA3 area of the left hippocampus impaired associative spatial long-term memory, whereas the equivalent manipulation in the right hippocampus did not''.

In my study, I worked with SD parkinsonian rats. They received rotenone (s.c.) systemically for 28 days, so I suggest that there would be damage in their hippocampus. I performed Morris Water Maze for 6 days and they euthanized immediately after the probe trial and the brain regions were dissected. I would like to measure the neurotransmitter levels on one side of the hemispheres (left or right). According to the literature data, It seems more reasonable to use the right-side hippocampus, however, I still have concerns.

Could you please share your experiences and ideas about this issue?

Thank you.

Dilara

References:

Klur et al., 2009: Article Hippocampal-Dependent Spatial Memory Functions Might be Late...

Shinohara et al., 2012: Article Right-hemispheric dominance of spatial memory in split-brain mice

Shipton et al., 2014: Article Left-right dissociation of hippocampal memory processes in mice