FURTHER BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF PARIETOTEMPORO-PREOCCIPITAL CORTEX

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Abstract
The present study was undertaken to provide further experimental evidence to support the conception that the primate parieto-temporo-preoccipital cortex may be subdivided into areas serving separate functions. Monkeys with inferotemporal resections consistently failed the visual, and showed no impairment in the somesthetic discriminations. Conversely, monkeys with parieto-preoccipital resections showed a decrement of retention in the somesthetic task initially administered, and showed no impairment in the visual discrimination. However, the inferotemporal operates'' performance of visual discrimination remained at chance level, whereas the parieto-preoccipital operates'' performance of the somesthetic discrimination reached criterion in approximately the same number of trials as they had required preoperatively to learn the task. Furthermore, there was little deficit of postoperative retention in the somesthetic task administered second. On the other hand, initial postoperative learning of a length discrimination was never accomplished by these animals. It is suggested that these latter results are a function of the ease or difficulty of the discrimination and of the intricacy of the somesthetic procedure used. Thus, in spite of the less severe deficit in somesthetic than in visual discrimination obtained in the present experiment, the results support the hypothesis that circumscribed lesions within the parieto-temporo-preoccipital sector produce performance decrements which are modality specific.

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