Foveal lesions do not ameliorate the visual discrimination deficit that follows foveal prestriate lesions

Removal of foveal prestriate cortex impairs visual discrimination learning by rhesus monkeys. To test whether this deficit might be due to a “higher-order” foveal scotoma, monkeys with foveal prestriate lesions were forced to fixate extrafoveally by infliction of central retinal lesions. The retinal lesions did not improve their visual discrimination learning, thereby failing to support the hypothesis.