Abnormal central visual pathways in the brain of an albino green monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops).

Abstract

The visual pathways of an albino green monkey have been studied electrophysiologically and by autoradiographic methods. The monkey had a white coat and pink eyes; it had a strabismus and a nystagmus. When comparisons were made with normal macaque and green monkeys, several abnormalities could be defined. In the retina there was no foveal pit. A whole mount preparation showed a central area of high ganglion cell density in which the ganglion cells were significantly larger than the most central ganglion cells of a normal monkey. More peripheral retinal areas showed an apparently normal distribution of ganglion cell sizes and packing densities. Within the optic tract the number of uncrossed retinofugal fibers was less than normal, the part of the tract that represents central vision showing almost no uncrossed component. The uncrossed input to the lateral geniculate nucleus and to the superior colliculus was similarly reduced. Regions normally receiving ipsilateral afferents from the central retina were innervated exclusively by crossed afferents. The pathways to the magnocellular geniculate layers showed a more extensive abnormality than did the pathways to the parvicellular layers. Not only were the afferents to the geniculate layers abnormal, but the laminar pattern in the nucleus was also clear than normal in some parts of the nucleus, and there were a number of abnormal laminar fusions. Within the visual cortex it was possible to demonstrate a normal mapping of the contralateral visual field through the contralateral nasal retina and through the peripheral parts of the ipsilateral temporal retina. The central parts of the temporal retina mapped abnormally in the contralateral visual cortex, so that there was a monocular map of the central parts of the visual field forming as a mirror reversal of the normal map. The normal map of the contralateral hemifield formed columns that alternated with the abnormal map of the ipsilateral hemifield. The peripheral parts of the visual field were represented as ocular dominance columns, demonstrable electrophysiologically and also by the transneuronal transport of 3H-proline.