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B Zernicki

Publications and source records attributed to B Zernicki.

94 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Higher reflexes.

The term reflex is used in a broad sense. Reflexes having a drive component are denoted as higher. Four types of higher reflexes are distinguished: avoidance, escape approach and consummatory. Each of these reflexes has a different drive component. The result of the reflex is a removal of the corresponding drive. For this purpose three different strategies are used. Complex higher reflexes are usually programmed and occur frequently in a chain form. A given function of an organism is performed by a system of reflexes controlled by one or more drives.

Animals↗

Visual discrimination learning in binocularly deprived cats: 20 years of studies in the Nencki Institute.

Data obtained by the author and his colleagues on various forms of visual discrimination learning in cats binocularly deprived of pattern vision with cloth masks (BD cats) are reviewed. In these studies two comparison groups were used: controls reared also in the laboratory but with open eyes (C cats) and cats reared in normal environment outside the laboratory (N cats). Data from other laboratories on lid-sutured and dark-reared BD cats are also shortly reviewed. The BD cats showed several clear-cut deficits. Those in pattern discrimination and in fine contrast discrimination were presumably mainly due to impairment of the perceptual inhibitory learning, whereas those in coping with the partition in the apparatus and in successive discrimination were due to impairment of associative inhibitory learning. The deficits in object discrimination and in interocular transfer were apparently due to a reduced number of binocular neurons in the deprived visual cortex and superior colliculi. Dramatic deficit in relearning after ablation of the superior colliculi-pretectum complex shows a reduced utilization of the abnormal cortex in discrimination learning. The C cats shared fully with BD cats a dramatic impairment in the visually delayed response. This short-term memory deficit was presumably due to a limited practice in visual learning in cage-reared cats. The C cats showed also some impairment in coping with the partition and in relearning after the colliculus-pretectum ablation. The BD cats were not impaired in pattern vs. no-pattern discrimination and in grating discrimination. Thus, visual deprivation does not impair the formation of excitatory and simple inhibitory connections required in crude discrimination. Moreover, presumably due to their less distractibility by external stimuli, the BD cats could be even superior to N and C cats in very crude discrimination tasks.

Animals↗

Adolf Beck, 1863-1942.

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Bibliographies as Topic↗

[Behavioral and neuronal effects of visual deprivation in cats].

Recent data obtained in the Nencki Institute are reviewed. In the cats deprived of pattern vision from birth several deficits were observed: (I) A simultaneous object discrimination learning for food reward was strongly impaired. However, retention of discrimination was only slightly impaired by bisual cortex ablation. (II) Ocular following reflex was impaired. (III) In the living cages stereotyped behavior appeared. (IV) Direction selectivity of superior colliculus units was impaired. (V) Percentage distribution of insoluble proteins in the electrophoretic pattern from visual and somatic sensory cortex was affected.

Animals↗