Effects of striate and occipital cortical lesions on visual discrimination in the rabbit

Learning of brightness and pattern discrimination in normal rabbits and in rabbits with striate and occipital lesions was compared. Those with striate lesions did not differ from normal rabbits in learning brightness discriminations but took significantly longer to learn patterns consisting of striations differing by 90° and 45°. No rabbit with striate lesions learned to discriminate either striations differing by 22° or a cross/ circle discrimination. Those with occipital lesions did not differ from normal rabbits in learning brightness or pattern discriminations. The relationship between receptive field characteristics of neurons in striate cortex and the effects of striate lesions on visual discrimination is discussed.