FUNCTION OF AUDITORY CORTEX OF CAT IN FREQUENCY DISCRIMINATION

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Abstract
Auditory frequency discrimination in cats after removal of all known auditory cortex was studied. In experiment I the conflicting results of the Meyer and Woolsey study (J. Neurophysiol., 1952, 15: 149-162), where no relearning occurred after producing the lesion, and the Butler et al. study (J. Neurophysiol., 1957, 20: 108-120), where relearning with normal thresholds occurred after lesion, were compared. Using the training method of Butler et al. and the lesions and conditioning apparatus of Meyer and Woolsey, animals relearned, as did those in the Butler et al. study. Thus the training procedure was the critical variable. In experiment II, the role of the training procedure was analyzed. The same group of animals both could and could not discriminate frequency following lesion, depending upon conditions of training. If response to change from constant background stimulation was required, frequency discrimination was rapidly re-learned. However, if the animals were required to respond to one stimulus complex and not to respond to another, relearning did not occur, response continuing to both sets of stimuli. If counterpunish-ment for response to the negative stimuli was introduced, response to both sets of stimuli declined to a low level. Thus, removal of auditory cortex appears to interfere with the ability to inhibit response to negative stimuli in frequency discrimination, rather than to interfere with frequency discrimination as such.

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