CORTICAL AREA IN THE RAT THAT MEDIATES VISUAL-PATTERN DISCRIMINATION

In Experiment I, bilateral ablations of the caudolateral cortex involv ing Krieg's area 36 impaired discrimination of visual patterns but not delayed alternation. In Experiment II, the same type of lesions retar ded postoperative learning to discriminate embedded visual patterns. I n rats from the Experiment II tracers of axonal transport gave no sign s of damage of the connections of the primary visual cortex. In agreem ent with this, Nissl stain of the dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei sho wed no neuronal lessor gliosis. These results suggest that caudo-later al cortex in rats corresponds to the inferotemporal cortex of primates .