Figure 1.

Freely-moving setup and basic stimulus design. A, Schematic of freely-moving behavioral setup. The trial initiation port was centered on the wall opposite the visual display. Choice ports were on either side of the display. An IR beam was also placed across the middle of the box. B, Task structure. An LED was illuminated above the trial initiation port to signal that the ferret could initiate a trial. When the ferret broke the IR beam in that port, a small reward was dispensed, and stimulus presentation was triggered. Subsequent selection of the correct port resulted in ending stimulus presentation and reward delivery. C & D, Acuity task stimuli: sinusoidal gratings with varying contrasts and spatial frequencies. The ferrets were trained to discriminate horizontal from vertical gratings. E, Motion integration task stimuli: RDK consisting of black and white dots with varying coherence levels. RDK had to be discriminated based on their direction of motion (left or right). F, Form integration task stimuli: linear Glass patterns with varying degrees of coherence. The ferrets were trained to discriminate horizontal from vertical patterns.