CHANGES OF BRAIN ELECTROPOTENTIALS DURING VISUAL DISCRIMINATION LEARNING IN MONKEY

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Abstract
Monkeys were trained on two-choice, successive visual discrimination problems or on a conditional reaction task. Light flashes (4-10 cps) provided the background illumination, so that the animal saw the stimuli only through the flickering light. Electroencephalographic records of every trial throughout the learning process were obtained by means of gross electrodes implanted in one of various neural structures. In the temporal cortex, the only apparent eeg alteration was a transient increase of the number of trials showing a reduced eeg amplitude during the animals'' acquisition of the visual tasks. The visual area eeg showed only rhythmic waves in response to the light flashes during learning. Photic driving usually habituated during the course of acquisition of visual discrimination and the conditioned reaction problem. Electrographic records obtained from the midbrain reticular formation, the lateral geniculate body, and the hippocampus contained occasional photic driving trials. They were infrequent and scattered, bearing no consistent relationship to the learning process.