Differential sparing of depth perception, orienting, and optokinetic nystagmus after neonatal versus adult lesions of cortical areas 17, 18, and 19 in the cat.
Performance by cats with lesions of the visual cortex made in infancy or adulthood was examined on tasks of visually guided behavior that do not require specific training. Cats with lesions confined to areas 17, 18, and 19 made during the 1st postnatal week showed more sparing of function on a visual cliff, at orienting to targets suddenly appearing in the visual field, and at optokinetic nystagmus than did cats with equivalent damage incurred as adults. Cats with lesions that included areas 17, 18, 19 and most of the contiguous visual areas were severely impaired at all tasks whether the lesions were incurred neonatally or in adulthood. These findings suggest that sparing of vision after neonatal lesions of cortical areas 17, 18, and 19 is not confined to pattern learning tasks and that remaining lateral cortical visual areas are importantly involved in such sparing.
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16870.
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Shupert
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Cornwell
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Payne
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D017120:Nystagmus, Optokinetic / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth / Q000502:physiology; D012183:Retrograde Degeneration / Q000502:physiology; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology