The Role of the Optic Cortex of the Dog in the Retention of Learned Responses to Light: Conditioning with Light and Food

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The investigation was designed to integrate and extend our knowledge concerning the role of the optic cortex of the dog in the retention of learned responses to light and to extend exptl. techniques. In the first expt. it was found that extinction of a conditioned reflex (CR) to light in normal animals is subject to so much variation that a comparison between pre-operative and postoperative extinction is extremely hazardous. Consequently, responses to unreinforced conditioned stimulus (CS) were interpreted to indicate only that a CR had been retained following removal of the striate areas of the cortex. The later studies were designed to determine the effect of partial or complete removal of the striate area or preoperatively obtained flexion CR to light. Shock avoidance was used as the unconditioned stimulus (US) in one and food in another expt. Food as US required a "passive" leg flexion to initiate the response. A CR to light or change in light intensity is retained after removal of the striate area. However, food-reward animals trained to respond to a change in light intensity of one direction and not the other failed to discriminate "right" and "wrong" changes post-operatively. The CR was retained but its specificity was lost, though there was some evidence that it could be restored. It was concluded that the striate plays an important role in the retention of differential aspects of discriminatory responses based on a particular difference in light intensity, but not in the retention of CR''s to such differences in general.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: