Date of Award
12-1-2012
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Hoane, Michael
Abstract
Cognitive rehabilitation has been shown to have beneficial effects on functional recovery following traumatic brain injury. In the present study, the rehabilitative effects of cognitive training in the T-maze on functional recovery of behavior and cortical sparing following a cortical impact injury (CCI) were examined. T-maze alternation has a widespread application in detecting cognitive dysfunction, and alternation in particular utilizes working memory. 47 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups (sham trained, sham yoked, sham control, injured trained, injured yoked, injured control). Injured animals received a bilateral frontal craniotomy (1.0 A/P, 0.0 M/L from Bregma). The cortices were depressed at a depth of 2.5 mm at a velocity of 3 m/s. T-maze training began on post surgery day 2 and continued daily through post surgery day 19. Following this rehabilitative T-maze training, cognition was assessed using two different memory tasks in the Morris water maze (MWM).
Access
This thesis is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.