Failure by rats to learn a visual conditional discrimination after lateral peristriate cortical lesions

Abstract

Visual functions of lateral peristriate cortex in the gray rat were behaviorally explored. Three groups of rats were trained: normal controls (N = 6), an operated control (monocular field of the striate cortex) (N = 5), and an experimental group which has lesions in the lateral peristriate cortex (N = 5). All subjects were trained postoperatively on a visual conditional discrimination problem. Lateral peristriate subjects had a significant deficit on pattern discrimination with respect to operated and normal control groups, and failed on the conditional discrimination test. Lateral peristriate cortex appears to have an important role in the acquisition of pattern discrimination, and an essential one in more complex visual tasks, where the association of two visual cues is required to master the problem. © 1979, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.