Contrast detection learning improves visual contrast sensitivity of cat.
Psychological studies on human subjects show that contrast detection learning promote learner's sensitivity to visual stimulus contrast. The underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, three cats (Felis catus) were trained to perform monocularly a contrast detection task by two-alternative forced choice method. The perceptual ability of each cat improved remarkably with learning as indicated by a significantly increased contrast sensitivity to visual stimuli. The learning effect displayed an evident specificity to the eye employed for learning but could partially transfer to the na?ve eye, prompting the possibility that contrast detection learning might cause neural plasticity before and after the information from both eyes are merged in the visual pathway. Further, the contrast sensitivity improvement was evident basically around the spatial frequency (SF) used for learning, which suggested that contrast detection learning effect showed, to some extent, a SF specificity. This study indicates that cat exhibits a property of contrast detection learning similar to human subjects and can be used as an animal model for subsequent investigations on the neural correlates that mediate learning-induced contrast sensitivity improvement in humans.
Hua
Tian-Miao
TM
School of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China. tianmiaohua@gmail.com
Wang
Zhen-Hua
ZH
Xu
Jin-Wang
JW
Diao
Jian-Gang
JG
D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005123:Eye; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D014796:Visual Perception