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Discrimination learning of grating orientation in visually deprived cats and the role of the superior colliculi.

Four cats deprived binocularly of pattern vision (BD cats), 4 control cats reared also in the laboratory (C cats), and 4 normal wild cats (N cats) were trained to discriminate gratings of progressively smaller difference in orientation. Differences in learning were found only in fine orientation discriminations. The stage of 15 degrees orientation difference was learned by 4 N cats, 2 C cats, and 1 BD cat. After the discrimination training, the superior colliculi were ablated in 2 C cats and 2 BD cats. In contrast to C cats, the BD cats were very deficient and failed to relearn even a horizontal versus vertical orientation discrimination. Thus, an abnormal neural strategy used by BD cats diminished their deficit in grating discrimination learning.

Animals

Effects of preference, prompt, and task agreement on the discrimination learning of mentally retarded adults.

Twenty-seven mentally retarded employees of a sheltered workshop were trained on five discrimination tasks (wires, hardware, moldings, capacitors, and fasteners) using five combination of preference, prompt, and task agreement: all agree, preference different, prompt different, tasks different, and all different. The data revealed that when the learners were prompted in the dimension of the target discrimination (a) fewer errors were made, (b) training time was reduced, and (c) fewer training trials were required to reach criterion. Preference for a particular dimension (color, shape, or size, as measured by a screening test) did not significantly affect performance on the discrimination tasks. Findings were discussed in terms of the functions of prompts as feedback, reinforcement, and symbolic parts of a compound stimulus.

Adult

Brightness discrimination learning under conditions of cue enhancement by rats with lesions in the amygdala or hippocampus.

Three groups of rats, one with amygdala lesions, one with hippocampal lesions and a control group were trained on a brightness discrimination task under one of three different conditions, enhancement of the negative cue, enhancement of the positive cue or a non-enhanced condition. Animals with amygdala lesions showed retarded learning compared with normal animals and those with hippocampal lesions under the positive cue enhancement condition. Under the negative cue enhancement condition animals with hipocampal lesions were significantly handicapped compared with the other two groups. Results are discussed in relation to the Douglas and Pribram concept of a reciprocal linking of the amygdala and hippocampal systems in discrimination learning with the amygdala functioning as a reinforce register system and the hippocampus as an error evaluation system.

Amygdala

Discrimination learning of the vertical and horizontal light spot oscillations in normal and visually deprived cats.

Three groups of cats were used: cats deprived binocularly of patterned vision from birth (BD cats), control cats reared in the laboratory with opened eyes (C cats) and cats reared in a rural environment during the first months of life (N cats). The cats were trained to discriminate vertical vs. horizontal oscillations of a light spot for food reward. The task was difficult for all cats. The presumable reason was that the majority of neurones discriminates best between two opposite directions of movement and this mechanism was useless in the task. The learning was only slightly impaired in the BD group and only as compared with the N group. Our main conclusion is that a reduced number of directionally selective neurons in BD cats was still sufficient for movement discrimination learning.

Animals