Zona incerta: A link between the visual cortical sensory system and the brainstem motor system

Abstract

The zona incerta is known to receive a contingent of fibers from the occipital cortex. To test whether this subthalamic region plays a differential role in visually guided behavior, adult albino rats, trained on both a visual pattern discrimination problem and an equally difficult nonvisual (incline plane) discrimination problem, sustained lesions to the zona incerta and were subsequently tested for retention. Significant retention deficits were observed only on the visual problem. These results suggest that the occipitoincertal pathway is selectively involved in visually guided behavior. © 1979, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.