Cortical area in the rat that mediates visual pattern discrimination

Abstract

In Experiment I, bilateral ablations of the caudolateral cortex involving Krieg's area 36 impaired discrimination of visual patterns but not delayed alternation. In Experiment II, the same type of lesions retarded postoperative learning to discriminate embedded visual patterns. In rats from the Experiment II tracers of axonal transport gave no signs of damage of the connections of the primary visual cortex. In agreement with this, Nissl stain of the dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei showed no neuronal loss or gliosis. These results suggest that caudo-lateral cortex in rats corresponds to the inferotemporal cortex of primates.