ИСТИНА

Irradiation with >5Gy doses has so far led to conflicting results on testing hippocampal-dependent behaviours. This reflects either false-positive behaviour findings or detection of borderline deficits easily missed when assessing discrete behavioural aspects in classical tests at certain post-irradiation time points. Thus, rather than targeting task-specific learning and memory, here we aimed to approach cognitive flexibility testing as an ultimate brain recovery measurement. To this end, we assessed continuous behavioural adaptations to a gradually transformed Intellicage setup about a month after 5Gy X-ray whole-brain irradiation. Our protocol combined sequential learning, relearning, and forgetting of individually assigned drinking corners of the Intellicage. Irradiated animals exhibited decreased locomotor activity and made fewer mistakes during the initial learning. They however successfully adapted to unrestricted as well as scheduled water supply, learned the target drinking corner and the subsequent “relearning” corner, and exhibited unaltered corner preference during memory extinguishing. Our data reveals a retained ability to retrieve previous memories and modify them to adapt to a continuously transforming environment despite repressed neurogenesis.