Further investigation of preoperative overtraining, visual cortex lesions and black-white discrimination by the rat.

Preoperative overtraining can improve retention after brain lesions. However, studies of effects of overtraining on relearning of a black-white discrimination after visual cortex lesions in the rat have obtained conflicting results. Another experiment was done on this problem. The postoperative performance of overtrained rats was found to be slightly better than that of non-overtrained rats, but the difference was not significant. Nevertheless, when saving scores were computed, differences were significant. These saving score results seem to demonstrate a preoperative overtraining effect. It is suggested that overtraining before surgery produces a shift of function in the brain, and this shift is related to the development of long-term memory.