Acuity, Luminance and Monocular Deprivation in the Cat.

Hubel and Wiesel (1970) described a "critical period" in the developing visual system of the cat extending from birth through the first three to four months of life based upon the ocular dominance condition of cortical neurons in monocularly deprived (MD) cats. Monocular deprivation during this period resulted in ocular dominance shifting in favor of the nondeprived eye. They determined that the effects of monocular deprivation were approximately proportional to the period of deprivation with a maximum sensitivity during the fourth and fifth week. After four months, cortical ocular dominance was found to be relatively immune to deprivation. Later physiological (Blakemore and Van Sluyters, 1974; Movshon and Blakemore, 1974; Movshon, 1976; Movshon and Durs tel er, 1977 ; Hoffmann and Sireteanu, 1977; Blasdel and Pettigrew, 1978), anatomical (Wan and Cragg, 1976; Cragg, Anker, and Wan, 1976), and behavioral (Mitchell, Cynader, and Movshon, 1977) experiments have also shown that the effects of monocular deprivation are largely reversible during the critical period by reverse suture or binocular experience.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Year

1979

Author dc:creator

• Smyly, Elizabeth Cates

• Acuity
• Luminance
• Monocular deprivation

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6933

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.library.uab.edu:etd-collection-7925