Tactile and visuo-spatial discrimination performance in the monkey: The effects of total and partial posterior parietal removal

Abstract

Sixteen rhesus monkeys were trained on a variety of tactile and visual tasks, and most animals were later tested for retention of most of the tasks. Four animals received bilateral posterior parietal ablations; 4 bilateral prestriate ablations; 4 bilateral posterior parieto-prestriate lesions at the beginning of training; and 4 acted as unoperated controls during initial training but then received bilateral posterior parieto-prestriate lesions before retention testing. Animals with posterior parietal or prestriate lesions were virtually unimpaired. However, animals with posterior parieto-prestriate lesions showed significant impairment on post-operative learning of various tactile tasks, on post-operative retention of pre-operatively learnt tactile tasks and on one visual spatial task.