Reiner A, Powers A S
J Comp Neurol. 1983 Jul 20;218(1):1-24. doi: 10.1002/cne.902180102.
Ascending thalamotelencephalic visual pathways that terminate in specific telencephalic regions have been described in all reptiles studied. Although the anatomical data suggests that such telencephalic regions may play a role in visual processing in reptiles, few behavioral data are available. In the present study, the effects of destruction of either the core nucleus (CN) of the dorsal ventricular ridge (telencephalic terminus of the tectothalamofugal pathway) or the dorsal cortex (telencephalic terminus of the retinothalamofugal pathway) on visual discriminative performance in the turtle were examined. Following extensive bilateral destruction of the CN, turtles were severely impaired in their performance of both a simultaneous pattern discrimination and a simultaneous visual intensity discrimination. The extent of the discriminative impairment was found to be specifically correlated with the amount of CN damage. In contrast to the effects of CN lesions, lesions of the dorsal cortex had no evident effect on the performance of either a simultaneous pattern discrimination or a simultaneous visual intensity discrimination. The present results suggest that, as in birds and mammals, telencephalic visual areas play an important role in visual functions in reptiles. As in at least some birds (such as pigeons), the telencephalic terminus of the tectothalamofugal visual pathway appears to play a larger, or at least more readily measurable, role in visual discrimination than does the telencephalic terminus of the retinothalamofugal pathway.
在所有已研究的爬行动物中，都描述了终止于特定端脑区域的丘脑-端脑视觉上行通路。尽管解剖学数据表明，这些端脑区域可能在爬行动物的视觉处理中发挥作用，但相关行为学数据却很少。在本研究中，研究了破坏背侧室嵴的核心核（CN，顶盖-丘脑-离中通路的端脑终点）或背侧皮质（视网膜-丘脑-离中通路的端脑终点）对乌龟视觉辨别能力的影响。在双侧广泛破坏CN后，乌龟在同时进行的图案辨别和视觉强度辨别任务中的表现严重受损。发现辨别能力受损的程度与CN损伤的程度呈特异性相关。与CN损伤的影响相反，背侧皮质损伤对同时进行的图案辨别或视觉强度辨别任务的表现没有明显影响。目前的结果表明，与鸟类和哺乳动物一样，端脑视觉区域在爬行动物的视觉功能中起着重要作用。与至少一些鸟类（如鸽子）一样，顶盖-丘脑-离中视觉通路的端脑终点在视觉辨别中似乎比视网膜-丘脑-离中通路的端脑终点发挥更大的作用，或者至少更容易测量。
