Effects of lesions involving efferent fibers to the retina in pigeons ( Columba livia)

Abstract

In Experiment 1 data are presented which demonstrate that, with lesions involving the centrifugal fibers, pigeons show elevated log 1 0 latencies of response in a two-choice key-pecking task. This effect persisted over 4 days while within each daily session there was a reduction in the initial log 1 0 latency elevation. In addition, a second part of this experiment failed to support a role for these fibers in mechanisms of response habituation to visual distraction. A second experiment is reported which demonstrates that birds with lesions including the centrifugal fibers also have more difficulty with low luminance discriminations than do controls. The results are interpreted as support for the dynamic adaptation theory of Miles [12].