Learning of visual tasks by monkeys with epileptogenic implants in temporal cortex.

Abstract

Alumina cream was implanted bilaterally in monkeys, either on anterior medial temporal cortex (AMT) or on inferotemporal cortex (IT). Normal controls and 2 epileptic groups were tested after onset of epileptic discharges. IT group was greatly impaired on the 1st 2 of 8 simultaneous visual discriminations and on 1st stimulus reversal, but overcame their deficits on succeeding discrimination and reversal problems. AMT group was only slightly poorer than normals on first discrimination and reversal tasks but showed little improvement in acquisition of succeeding problems. It is concluded that IT cortex is implicated in searching behavior on visual tasks, whereas AMT cortex (amygdaloid structures) is implicated in the solution of tasks which require utilization of previous experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)