Orientation to Visual Stimuli and the Superior Colliculus in the Rat

Abstract

Rats were trained in a six-choice jumping stand apparatus to enter the dark door, and avoid the five bright doors. Rats with bilateral superior collicular lesions were found to be severely impaired in this task, although further experiments showed that they were able to discriminate bright from dark stimuli and could perform correctly if allowed to approach each door in turn. It is suggested that the superior colliculus is important in orientation to visual cues, and there is some evidence that it is involved in orientation to brightness but not visual form cues.