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Bilateral lesions of nucleus subpretectalis/interstitio-pretecto-subpretectalis (SP/IPS) selectively impair figure–ground discrimination in pigeons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2013

ERIN N. SCULLY ,
MARTIN J. ACERBO  and
OLGA F. LAZAREVA
ERIN N. SCULLY
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
MARTIN J. ACERBO*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
OLGA F. LAZAREVA
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
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Abstract

Earlier, we reported that nucleus rotundus (Rt) together with its inhibitory complex, nucleus subpretectalis/interstitio-pretecto-subpretectalis (SP/IPS), had significantly higher activity in pigeons performing figure–ground discrimination than in the control group that did not perform any visual discriminations. In contrast, color discrimination produced significantly higher activity than control in the Rt but not in the SP/IPS. Finally, shape discrimination produced significantly lower activity than control in both the Rt and the SP/IPS. In this study, we trained pigeons to simultaneously perform three visual discriminations (figure–ground, color, and shape) using the same stimulus displays. When birds learned to perform all three tasks concurrently at high levels of accuracy, we conducted bilateral chemical lesions of the SP/IPS. After a period of recovery, the birds were retrained on the same tasks to evaluate the effect of lesions on maintenance of these discriminations. We found that the lesions of the SP/IPS had no effect on color or shape discrimination and that they significantly impaired figure–ground discrimination. Together with our earlier data, these results suggest that the nucleus Rt and the SP/IPS are the key structures involved in figure–ground discrimination. These results also imply that thalamic processing is critical for figure–ground segregation in avian brain.

Keywords

Shape discriminationColor discriminationFigure–ground discriminationVisual processingSP/IPS
Type
Brief Communication
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 105 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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