Habituation of ocular following reflex requires corpus callosum for interhemispheric transfer

In cats, unanesthetized following transection of the brainstem at a level precluding painful sensation, and limiting ocular motility to a vertically oriented course (the pretrigeminal preparation), habituation of the orienting reflex, consisting of ocular fixation and smooth pursuit, readily transferred between moving visual stimuli directed first at one and then the other cerebral hemisphere. Under the same conditions, when the corpus callosum had been transected 2 weeks prior to the habituation, interhemispheric transfer was absent. Thus, despite substantial brainstem involvement and bilateral coordination of ocular motility the neocortex plays an essential role in this habituation, just as it does in the interhemispheric transfer of visual discrimination learning. This suggests that habituation is a fundamental form of learning in the mammalian forebrain.