Absence of complete internasal-interocular transfer of habituation of exploratory behavior in rats

Normal, blind, anosmic, and unilaterally blind and contralaterally anosmic albino rats were submitted to unilateral peripheral sensory (olfactory and/or visual) occlusion and observed in an initially unfamiliar arena. Next day, either the same sensory periphery (control subjects) or the contralateral one (experimental subjects) was occluded and a new observation in the arena was made. The duration of the exploratory behavior of control and experimental subjects, on each occasion, was compared. There was not a complete internasal-interocular transfer of long-term habituation of exploratory behavior, either when olfaction and vision were suppressed on opposite sides or when they were suppressed on the same side, but there was a complete internasal transfer of this habituation in blind animals and a complete interocular transfer of this habituation in anosmic animals. These results suggest that long-term habituation of the exploratory behavior elicited by one olfactory and one visual periphery activation and that of the exploratory behavior elicited by the other olfactory and the other visual periphery activation depend upon different representations of the stimulatory situation in the central nervous system. These representations would, however, have only a small number of elements which are not shared.