Brain Lesions, Imprinting, and Operant Learning

Bilateral lesions placed in a restricted part of the chick forebrain (IMHV) impair the acquisition (McCabe et al., 1981) and the retention (McCabe et al., 1982) of imprinting preferences. It is not known however, whether IMHV is specifically involved in imprinting or if it is also involved in more general learning processes. Consequently the present study was designed to investigate the effects of lesions to IMHV on performance in an operant conditioning task.