Abstract
The present work (a) examined an earlier suggestion that Lashley’s law of equipotentiality received questionable support from the principal data used in its formulation and (b) compared the effects of lesions in the areas believed to represent frontal (MF) and parietal association cortex in the rat. Another frontal area (FP), often said to be an association area, was lesioned, and sham-operated controls were included. Only the MF and parietal lesions led to postoperative retention deficits. It was suggested that Lashley’s law of equipotentiality, even in the limited context that he presented it, should no longer be reported uncritically. Further discussion considered the involvement of MF and parietal neocortex in spatially related behaviors and the need to focus on MF rather than FP cortex as the frontal association area.
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Thomas, R.K., Weir, V.K. The effects of lesions in the frontal or posterior association cortex of rats on maze III. Psychobiology 3, 210–214 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337507
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337507