Presumed ‘prefrontal cortex’ lesions in pigeons: effects on visual discrimination performance

• Published in: Behavioural brain research 1999-07, Vol.102 (1), p.165-170
• Main Authors: Aldavert-Vera, Laura, Costa-Miserachs, David, Divac, Ivan, D. Delius, Juan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anatomical correlates of behavior; Animals; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Columbidae - physiology; Discrimination Learning - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Lesions; Mental Recall - physiology; Neostriatum - physiology; Orientation - physiology; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Pigeons; Posterodorsolateral neostriatum; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Retention (Psychology) - physiology; Reversal learning; Reversal Learning - physiology; Visual discriminations
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/S0166-4328(99)00016-9

The posterodorsolateral neostriatum (PDLNS) in pigeons may be an equivalent of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in mammals. Here we report that lesions of this brain region in pigeons have a detrimental effect on various learned visual discriminations. Pigeons with lesions of the overlying area corticoidea dorsolateralis (CDL) served as controls. Both the postoperative re-learning to criterion of a preoperatively learned simultaneous double visual mirror pattern discrimination and the learning of a simple successive go, no-go discrimination were impaired by the PDLNS lesions. The PDLNS and CDL groups did not differ significantly in the postoperative learning of a reversal of the simultaneous discrimination. The results are discussed in relation to the presumed equivalence between the avian PDNLS and the mammalian PFC.