抄録
Under a head restraint condition, cats were trained to gaze on a light emitting diode (LED) positioned in front of them for the purpose of studying visual properties of neurons in an unanaesthetized state.
The LED changes its state sequentially as OFF, ON, and flickering. Tongue pushing actions of a lever are reinforced with liquid reward only when the LED is flickering. The duration of LED ON changes randomly from trial to trial and the duration of flickering is also short. Therefore, cats have few chances of being rewarded unless they gaze on the LED during the ON period.
After preliminary training stages, cats could learn the task in several weeks. The electrooculogram showed that the eyes were fixed during the ON period of the LED.
