The effects of occipital, temporal and parietal lesions on visual discriminations in a prosimian primate, Galago senagalensis

Abstract

The study of anthropoid primates has enabled investigators to characterize the role of the occipital cortex in the mediation of the major part of primate visual behavior. The additional discovery of "psychic blind-ness" associated with temporal lobe removal opened the way for the subsequent identification of the inferotemporal deficit. More recently, understanding of visual mechanisms has been enriched by the study of more "primitive" species such as the tree shrew. Behavioral studies of the tree shrew have shown that, like the monkey, both the occipital and temporal cortices have a role in basic visual functions. On anatomical grounds, the bush baby is considered to have a visual system intermediate in complexity to that of the tree shrew and that of the monkey. This study was initiated to determine if the visual capacities of the bush baby were Intermediate to those described for the tree shrew and the monkey.