Some highlights of research on the effects of caudate nucleus lesions over the past 200 years

This review describes experiments on the effects of caudate nucleus lesions on behavior in monkeys, cats and rats. Early work on monkeys and cats focused on the relationship of the caudate to the cortex in motor control, leading to the idea that the caudate serves to inhibit behaviors initiated by the cortex. However, investigation of this hypothesis with systematic behavioral testing in all three species did not support this idea; rather, these studies provided evidence that caudate lesions affect memory functions. Two main types of memory tasks were affected. One type involved reinforced stimulus–response (S–R) associations, the other involved spatial information, response–reinforcer contingencies, or working memory. Recent evidence, mainly from rats, suggests that the dorsolateral part of the caudoputamen is central to the processing and consolidation of memory for reinforced S–R associations, and that the more medial and anterior parts of the same structure are part of a neural circuit that (in some cases) also includes the hippocampus, and mediates relational information and certain forms of working memory. The possibility that the spatial distribution of the patch and matrix compartments within the caudoputamen underlies these regional differences is discussed.