Double dissociation of egocentric and allocentric space following medial prefrontal and parietal cortex lesions in the rat.

Animals with medial prefrontal cortex or parietal cortex lesions and sham-operated and non-operated controls were tested for the acquisition of an adjacent arm task that accentuated the importance of egocentric spatial localization and a cheese board task that accentuated the importance of allocentric spatial localization. Results indicated that relative to controls, animals with medial-prefrontal cortex lesions are impaired on the adjacent arm task but displayed facilitation on the cheese board task. In contrast, relative to controls, rats with parietal cortex lesions are impaired on the cheese board task but show no impairment on the adjacent arm task. The data suggest a double dissociation of function between medial prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex in terms of coding of egocentric versus allocentric spatial information.