Effects of ectostriatal lesions on discriminations of conspecific, species and familiar objects in pigeons.
Pigeons were trained on three visual discrimination tasks, that is (1) pigeon vs. other birds discrimination; (2) Java sparrow vs. grey starling discrimination; and (3) home cage vs. food tray discrimination. Then the ectostriatum or the Wulst was bilaterally damaged. The Wulst lesions did not cause deficits in any tasks. The ectostriatal lesions impaired the species discrimination (Java sparrow vs. grey starling) but not the conspecific discrimination (pigeon vs. other birds). Some birds showed deficits in the familiar object (the home cage and the food tray) discrimination while others did not. These results suggest dissociation between conspecific and species discriminations. The results of the familiar object discrimination indicate factor of familiarity in the conspecific discrimination.
Watanabe
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Department of Psychology, Keio University Mita, Tokyo, Japan. swat@flet.mita.keio.ac.jp
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology; D010856:Columbidae; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*