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Configurational pattern discrimination responsible for dishabituation in common toads Bufo bufo (L.): Behavioral tests of the predictions of a neural model

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Summary

Recently, a neural model of visual pattern discrimination for stimulus-specific habituation was developed, based on previous behavioral studies which demonstrated that toads exhibit a dishabituation hierarchy for different worm-like stimuli. The model suggests that visual objects are represented by temporal coding and predicts that the dishabituation hierarchy changes when the stimulus/background contrast direction is reversed or the stimulus size is varied. The behavioral experiments reported in this paper were designed to test these predictions, (1) For a pair of stimuli from the contrast reversal prediction, the experimental results validated the theory. (2) For a pair of stimuli from the size reduction prediction, the experimental results failed to validate the theory. Further experiments concerning size effects suggest that configurai visual pattern discrimination in toads exhibits size invariance. (3) Inspired by the Groves-Thompson account of habituation, we found that dishabituation by a second stimulus has a separate process from habituation to a first stimulus. This paper serves as an example of a fruitful dialogue between experimentation and modeling, crucial for understanding brain functions.

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Abbreviations

a-h :

worm-like stimulus patterns

AT :

anterior thalamus

ERF :

excitatory receptive field

IRF :

inhibitory receptive field

RF :

receptive field

R2 to R4 :

retinal ganglion cell types

vMP :

posterior ventromedial pallium

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Neural Engineering, University of Southern California, 90089-2520, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    DeLiang Wang

  2. Abteilung Neurobiologie, Universität Kassel, Fachbereich 19, W-3500, Kassel, Germany

    Jörg-Peter Ewert

Authors
  1. DeLiang Wang
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  2. Jörg-Peter Ewert
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Wang, D., Ewert, JP. Configurational pattern discrimination responsible for dishabituation in common toads Bufo bufo (L.): Behavioral tests of the predictions of a neural model. J Comp Physiol A 170, 317–325 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00191420

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00191420

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