Alternation behavior of cats with medial visual cortex ablation

doi:10.1016/0031-9384(76)90163-3

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 17, Issue 4, October 1976, Pages 635-643

https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(76)90163-3 Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous work by Lubar et al. [15] showed that cats with medial visual cortex ablation were impaired in acquisition of two-way active avoidance while pattern discrimination and gross behavior remained normal. In the present study cats with comparable ablations served in 6 experiments involving visual and nonvisual spatial alternation in a two-choice Yerkes alley as well as home cage and neurological observations. Animals with ablations were significantly impaired in (1) a spatial alternation task; (2) spatial alternation after peripheral occlusion; (3) a reversal using pattern and spatial elements; (4) one-way active avoidance with shock punishment; (5) a form discrimination requiring spatial alternation. Experimental animals were equal to controls in alternation using only a single cue. The deficits observed mainly involved acquisition and were in all but two cases reduced by training. The exceptions were (2) peripheral occlusion and (3) reversal learning. Though grossly and neurologically normal, experimental animals had higher home cage activity and vocalization levels than controls. The results are evaluated in terms of visual and nonvisual functions of the visual cortex.

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^☆: Supported by an NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship to J. Winer and USPHS Grant MH 1051 3-07 to J. F. Lubar.

²: I thank Mr. L. McMillan for illustrations and photography, Ms. J. Lubar, Mr. B. Ray and Ms. B. Kofron for histological aid, and Mr. D. Murray for help in Experiment 7.

³: Submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee by the senior author, to whom requests for reprints should be addressed at the Department of Anatomy, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115.

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Alternation behavior of cats with medial visual cortex ablation☆

Abstract

Brain Res.

Physiol. Behav.

Expl Neurol.

Expl Neurol.

Effects of serial bilateral neocortical ablations on visual discrimination by cats

Expl Neurol.

The pretectum and superior colliculus in visually guided behavior, and in flux and form discrimination in the cat

J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

A map of the visual cortex in the cat

J. Physiol. (Lond.)

Survival of pattern vision after removal of the striate cortex in the adult cat

J. comp. Neurol.

Introduction

What the frog's eye tells the monkey's brain

Brain, Behav. Evolut.

Optovestibular integration in the cat's cortex: a study of sensory convergence on cortical neurons

Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence

The mechanism of vision. IV. The cerebral areas necessary for pattern vision in the rat

J. comp. Neurol.