Global motion detection is impaired in cats deprived early of pattern vision

• Published in: Behavioural brain research 2002-08, Vol.134 (1), p.59-65
• Main Authors: Burnat, Kalina, Vandenbussche, Erik, Żernicki, Bogusław
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cat; Cats; Cues; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Global motion; Motion perception; Motion Perception - physiology; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Relative motion; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Vision, Binocular - physiology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual deprivation; Y-pathway
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/S0166-4328(01)00456-9

We investigated global motion detection in binocularly deprived cats (BD cats) and control cats (C cats). The cats were trained in the two-choice free running apparatus for a food reward. The positive stimulus was a moving random-dot pattern with all dots moving in one direction, the negative stimulus was the same random-dot pattern but stationary. The BD cats were severely impaired in detection of global motion stimulus as compared with the C cats. In contrast, their level of performance in a simple relative motion detection task (one square) did not differ from that in the C cats. However, in more complex relative motion detection task (two squares) the performance of the BD cats was impaired. The deficit in the detection of global motion in BD cats may be due to impairments of their Y-pathway.