Telencephalic function implicated in food-reinforced color discrimination learning in the goldfish.
The effects of telencephalic ablation on the learning of color discrimination were studied in the goldfish (Carassius auratus) to determine the role of the telencephalon in the learning. The performances of normal and telencephalonless animals were compared in relation to their instrumental training rates. The animals were trained to discriminate between blue and green stimulating patches presented simultaneously. Normal and telencephalonless animals which underwent ten trials per day were unable to discriminate between the stimuli, but animals which underwent thirty trials showed learning. In animals which underwent twenty trials, there was a clear difference between the performances of normal and telencephalonless animals: the normal ones were able to learn, but the telencephalonless ones showed a significantly impaired learning ability. These results suggest that the telencephalon is not essential for the learning, but is supplementary in that it facilitates integration of neural events in extratelencephalic areas that are necessary for the instrumental process involved in color discrimination learning.
Ohnishi
K
K
Department of Physiology, Nara Medical University, Japan.
D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D003530:Cyprinidae / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D006054:Goldfish / Q000502:physiology*; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000502:physiology*