Differential effects of early monocular deprivation on binocular and monocular segments of cat striate cortex

TLDR: Receptive-field properties were studied for 156 cells in 15 mqnocularly deprived cats, and in agreement with previous studies, these data suggest that binocular perception is influenced by the deprived eye.

Abstract: 1. Receptive-field properties were studied for 156 cells in 15 mqnocularly deprived cats. Particular emphasis was placed on comparisons between receptive fields located in the deprived monocular segment (i.e., far from the vertical meridian) and more centrally located fields. 2. Between 0” and 30’ of visual-field eccentricity from the vertical meridian, 36 of 37 cells were influenced, both for the excitatory and inhibitory components, exclusively by the nondeprived eye. Also, se.veral of these cells had abnormal receptive-field properties. At eccentricities greater than 30”, we found 40 cells which responded to stimuli presented to the deprived eye; of these, 4 were influenced binocularly. An additional 43 cells with fields between 30’ and 45’ eccentricity responded only to stimulation of the nondeprived eye, and 17 cells were studied in the nondeprived monocular segment. About one-third of the cells influenced by the deprived eye had abnormal fields. At least 18 other cells did not respond to any visual stimulus presented to either eye. 3. While the cortical monocular segment related to the nondeprived eye had normal percentages of cell types, the deprived monocular segment had a significant reduction in the ratio of normal complex to normal simple cells. Simple cells in the deprived monocular segment appeared to be normal in every respect we measured. 4. No gross anatomical changes were found which might account for this complex cell loss. That is, we found no differences in cell size or packing density between the deprived and nondeprived monocular segments, 5. The following conclusions were drawn from these results: a) in agreement with previous studies, these data suggest that binocular com-