Vernier and Grating Acuity in Adult Hooded Rats: The Influence of Sex

Although morphological sex differences are pervasive in the primary visual cortex of hooded rats, it is not known whether sex differences occur in vision in these rats. In this study, grating acuity was measured in a forced-choice Y maze and a jumping stand in adult hooded rats, and vernier acuity t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 1997-08, Vol.111 (4), p.792-800
Main Authors: Seymoure, Penny, Juraska, Janice M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Sex Differences
Animals
Attention - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Mapping
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Female
Forced Choice (Testing Method)
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Male
Maze Learning - physiology
Orientation - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Psychophysics
Rats
Rodents
Sex Characteristics
Space life sciences
Space Perception - physiology
Visual Acuity
Visual Acuity - physiology
Visual Cortex - physiology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although morphological sex differences are pervasive in the primary visual cortex of hooded rats, it is not known whether sex differences occur in vision in these rats. In this study, grating acuity was measured in a forced-choice Y maze and a jumping stand in adult hooded rats, and vernier acuity thresholds were established in the jumping stand. With a criterion of 34 correct/50 trials, the number of correct choices for both sexes was high (1.0-1.6 cycles per degree [c/deg]) for spatial gratings. Female rats made more correct identifications of the coarse gratings (0.125 and 0.25 c/deg) than male rats, but no sex differences were found for higher spatial frequencies. In contrast, male rats were better at detecting smaller vernier offsets in both the individual criterion and group averages than female rats, and all of the rats detected vernier misalignments at 34.1 min (equivalent to 1.75 c/deg), which is above their grating acuity. Vernier acuity may mirror some sex differences in visual cortex anatomy.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.111.4.792