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Monocular astigmatism effects on kitten visual cortex development

Abstract

SIMULTANEOUS binocular vision during postnatal development is necessary for the maintenance of normal binocular connectivity in the kitten visual cortex. If one eyelid of a kitten is sutured shut throughout early development, three major changes can be observed when the eyelid is opened: (1) cortical cells lose functional connections with the deprived eye and may be activated only by the eye which remained open1,2; (2) cells in the layer of the lateral geniculate nucleus connected to the deprived eye shrink relative to those cells receiving innervation from the normal eye3,4; and (3) tested through its deprived eye, the cat seems to be almost totally blind5. We report here investigations on kittens which had been reared in the dark and then given visual exposure wearing goggles. One eye was allowed to view normally and the other looked through a cylindrical lens simulating asigmatism.

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CYNADER, M., MITCHELL, D. Monocular astigmatism effects on kitten visual cortex development. Nature 270, 177–178 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270177a0

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