Visual performance of pigeons following hippocampal lesions.
The effect of hippocampal lesions on performance in two psychophysical measures of spatial vision (acuity and size-difference threshold) was examined in 7 pigeons. No difference between the preoperative and postoperative thresholds of the experimental birds was found. The visual performance of pigeons in the psychophysical tasks failed to reveal a role of the hippocampal formation in vision. The results argue strongly that the behavioral deficits found in pigeons with hippocampal lesions when tested in a variety of memory-related spatial tasks is not based on a defect in spatial vision but impaired spatial cognition.
Bingman
V P
VP
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, OH 43403.
Hodos
W
W
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011601:Psychophysics; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012858:Size Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology