Summary
In twelve kittens, convergent squint was surgically produced at either 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, or 16 weeks. When these kittens reached the age of 4–8 months, the spatial resolution of ‘sustained’ cells which received inputs from the area centralis in layers A and A1 of both the left and right lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was measured under nitrous oxide/halothane anaesthesia, using the highest spatial frequency of a sinusoidal grating resolved by cells as a measure of cellular visual acuity. Spatial resolution of cells fed by the squinting eye's area centralis was poorest in the kittens in which the squint was produced at 3 weeks. The resolution of the cells driven by the area centralis of the squinting eye gradually improved for the kittens in which the squint was produced at progressively later stages. There was no effect of convergent squint on the resolving power of cells in the kittens in which squint was produced at 13 weeks and 16 weeks. The developmental curve of spatial resolution of LGN cells obtained from normal kittens of different ages was found to fit very closely with a plot of the spatial resolution of cells driven by the squinting eye against age at squint production. These results suggest that the loss of spatial resolution (amblyopia) in the eye with convergent squint is due to the arrest of development of spatial resolution during the sensitive period in early postnatal life. Clinical implications are discussed.
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Ikeda, H., Tremain, K.E. & Einon, G. Loss of spatial resolution of lateral geniculate nucleus neurones in kittens raised with convergent squint produced at different stages in development. Exp Brain Res 31, 207–220 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237600
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237600