Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-mnklg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-13T05:13:08.950Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Color-reversal learning: Effects after lesions of thalamic visual structures in pigeons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Lin M. Chaves,
William Hodos and
Onur Güntürkün
Lin M. Chaves
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
William Hodos
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
Onur Güntürkün
Affiliation:
Universität Konstanz, Allgemeine Psychologie, D-7750 Konstanz, Germany
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The performance of pigeons on a color-reversal learning task was assessed after thalamic lesions disrupting the thalamofugal and tectofugal visual pathways. Successful performance of a simultaneous color discrimination was accomplished after surgery, and a series of reversals of the original discrimination followed during which the positive and negative consequences associated with the stimuli were interchanged. Shimizu and Hodos (1989) had reported that lesions of two laminae in the visual wulst (IHA and HD), both targets of the avian thalamofugal pathway, resulted in increased errors in a color-reversal learning task in pigeons. This finding suggested that the thalamofugal pathway might play a role in visual discrimination involving stimulus context changes. In the present study, lesions of the OPT complex (the thalamic source of afferents to IHA and HD) were found to have no effect on color-reversal learning performance. Instead, we found that damage to nucleus rotundus (the thalamic component of the tectofugal pathway) resulted in deficits that were far in excess of those that had been obtained after IHA and HD lesions. We suggest that the color-reversal learning deficits after Wulst lesions are not due to the Wulst's connections with the thalamofugal pathway, but rather to its connections with the tectofugal pathway.

Keywords

LesionsThalamusReversal learningPigeons

Information

Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 10 , Issue 6 , November 1993, pp. 1099 - 1107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bagnoli, P. & Burkhalter, A. (1983). Organization of the afferent projections to the Wulst in the pigeon. Journal of Comparative Neurology 214, 103–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagnoli, P., Fontanesi, G. & Porciatti, V. (1990). Binocularity in the little owl, Athene noctua. I. Anatomical investigation of the thalamo-Wulst pathway. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 35, 31–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benowitz, L.I. & lee Teng, E. (1973). Contrasting effects of three forebrain ablations on discrimination learning and reversal in chicks. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 84, 391–397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bessette, B.B. & Hodos, W. (1989). Intensity, color, and pattern discrimination deficits after lesions of the core and belt regions of the ectostriatum. Visual Neuroscience 2, 27–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delius, J.D. & Hollard, V.D. (1987). Orientation invariance of shape recognition in forebrain-lesioned pigeons. Behavioural Brain Research 23, 251–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delius, J.D., Jäger, R. & Friesel, M. (1984). Lateral telencephalic lesions affect visual discriminations in pigeons. Behavioural Brain Research 11, 249–258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erichsen, J.T., Hodos, W., Evinger, C., Bessette, B.B. & Phillips, S.J. (1989). Head orientation in pigeons: Postural, locomotor, and visual determinants. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 33, 268–278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fellows, B.J. (1967). Chance stimulus sequences for discrimination of tasks. Psychological Bulletin 67, 87–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Güntürkün, O. & Karten, H.J. (1991). An immunocytochemical analysis of the lateral geniculate complex in the pigeon (Columbia livia). Journal of Comparative Neurology 314, 721–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, B.P., Hodos, W., Holden, A.L. & Low, A.L. (1987). The projection of the visual field upon the retina of the pigeon. Vision Research 27, 31–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodos, W. (1969). Color-discrimination deficits after lesions of the nucleus rotundus in pigeons. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 2, 185–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodos, W. (1976). Vision and the visual system: A bird’s eye view. In Progress in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology, Vol. 6, ed. Sprague, J.M. & Epstein, A.N., pp. 29–62. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hodos, W. & Bobko, P. (1984). A weighted index of bilateral brain lesions. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 12, 43–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodos, W. & Bonbright, J.C. (1974). Intensity difference thresholds in pigeons after lesions of the tectofugal and thalamofugal visual pathways. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 87, 1013–1031.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodos, W. & Karten, H.J. (1966). Brightness and pattern discrimination deficits after lesions of nucleus rotundus in the pigeon. Experimental Brain Research 2, 151–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodos, W. & Karten, H.J. (1970). Visual intensity and pattern discrimination deficits after lesions of ectostriatum in pigeons. Journal of Comparative Neurology 140, 53–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodos, W., Karten, H.J. & Bonbright, J.C. (1973). Visual intensity and pattern discrimination after lesions of the thalamofugal pathway in pigeons. Journal of Comparative Neurology 148, 447–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karten, H.J. & Hodos, W. (1967). A Stereotaxic Alias of the Brain of the Pigeon (Columba livia). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Karten, H.J., Hodos, W., Nauta, W.J.H. & Revzin, A.M. (1973). Neural connections of the “visual Wulst” of the avian telencepha-lon. Experimental studies in the pigeon (Columba livia) and owl (Speotyto cunicularia). Journal of Comparative Neurology 150, 253–278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karten, H.J. & Revzin, A. (1966). The afferent connections of the nucleus rotundus in the pigeon. Brain Research 2, 368–377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klüver, H. & Barrera, E. (1953). A method for the combined staining of cells and fibers in the nervous system. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology 12, 400–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macko, K.A. & Hodos, W. (1984). Near-field acuity after visual system lesions in pigeons. I. Thalamus. Behavioural Brain Research 13, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macphail, E.M. (1971). Hyperstriatal lesions in pigeons: Effects on response inhibition, behavioral contrast, and reversal learning. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 75, 500–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macphail, E.M. (1976). Effects of hyperstriatal lesions on within-day serial reversal performance in pigeons. Physiology and Behavior 16, 529–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miceli, D., Gioanni, H., Repérant, J. & Peyrichoux, J. (1979). The avian visual Wulst. I. An anatomical study of afferent and efferent pathways. II. An electrophysiological study of the functional properties of single neurons. In Neural Mechanisms of Behavior in the Pigeon, ed. Granda, A.M. & Maxwell, J.M., pp. 223–254. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Miceli, D., Marchand, L., Repérant, J. & Rio, J.-P. (1990). Projections of the dorsolateral anterior complex and adjacent thalamic nuclei upon the visual Wulst in the pigeon. Brain Research 518, 317–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mulvanny, P. (1979). Discrimination of line orientation by visual nuclei. In Neural Mechanisms of Behavior in the Pigeon, ed. Granda, A.M. & Maxwell, J.M., pp. 199–222. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Nalbach, H.-O., Wolf-Oberhollenzer, F. & Kirschfeld, K. (1990). The pigeon’s eye viewed through an ophthalmoscopic microscope: Orientation of retinal landmarks and significance of eye movements. Vision Research 30, 529–540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nixdorf, B.N. & Bischof, H.J. (1982). Afferent connections of the ectostriatum and visual Wulst in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis Gould): A HRP study. Brain Research 248, 9–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedhazur, E.J. (1982). Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research. Explanation and Prediction, (2nd ed.). New York: CBS College.Google Scholar
Remy, M. & Güntürkün, O. (1991). Retinal afferents to the tectum opticum and the nucleus opticus principalis thalami in the pigeon. Journal of Comparative Neurology 305, 57–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, N.M., Hodos, W. & Pasternak, T. (1988). Effects of serial lesions of telencephalic components of the visual system in pigeons. Visual Neuroscience 1, 387–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritchie, T. (1979). Intratelencephalic Visual Connections and their Relationship to the Archistriatum in the Pigeon (Columba livia). Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia.Google Scholar
Shimizu, T., Cox, K. & Karten, H.J.Intratelencephalic projections of the visual Wulst in pigeons (Columba livia). Journal of Comparative Neurology (in press).Google Scholar
Shimizu, T. & Hodos, W. (1989). Reversal learning in pigeons: Effects of selective lesions of the Wulst. Behavioral Neuroscience 103, 262–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stettner, L.J. & Schultz, W.J. (1967). Brain lesions in birds: Effects on discrimination acquisition and reversal. Science 155, 1689–1692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watanabe, M., Ito, H. & Ikushima, M. (1985). Cytoarchitecture and ultrastructure of the avian ectostriatum: Afferent terminals from the dorsal telencephalon and some nuclei in the thalamus. Journal of Comparative Neurology 236, 241–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watanabe, S. (1991). Effects of ectostriatal lesions on natural concept, pseudoconcept, and artificial pattern discrimination in pigeons. Visual Neuroscience 6, 497–506.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed