Perceptual Learning of Grate Orientation Discrimination in Cats

Perceptual learning of orientation discrimination was investigated using cats. Two adult cats (Cat 1 and 2) were trained to monocularly discriminate between two static striped sinusoidal grates with 30° orientation difference. After greater than 80% correct performance was reached, cats were then required to monocularly perform a discrimination between two grates with consecutively shifting orientation difference(2°, 4°, 6°, 8°, 10°, 12°, 16°, 20°, 24°, 30°) . The staircase method (two correct-down and one error-up) was applied throughout the training to track the threshold of orientation difference that cats could detect. The performance of detecting grates with varied orientation difference was measured respectively for both trained and untrained eyes before and after training. Our results showed that the learning effect of discrimination for grates with a fixed orientation difference transferred completely from the trained eye to the untrained eye, whereas the inter-eye transfer for detecting grates with gradually reducing orientation difference was almost nonegrates. The two opposite learning effects in the same subject strongly suggest that different information processing mechanisms might mediate the learning processes.