Effects of alternating monocular occlusion on the development of visual callosal connections

Abstract

During normal postnatal development there is a partial elimination of the callosal projections of cortical areas 17 and 18 in the cat. Visual experience early in life can modulate this process. In the present study, we investigated how restricting visual experience to alternating monocular occlusion affects the development of the callosal connections of cortical areas 17 and 18. Alternating monocular occlusion exaggerates the normally occurring partial elimination of immature callosal projection: it causes a significant reduction in the total number of neurons in the supragranular layers that send an axon through the corpus callosum and marginally increases the distribution of these neurons across areas 17 and 18. Examination of these data in the context of the effects of other types of abnormal early visual experience on the corpus callosum and on the anatomy and physiology of areas 17 and 18 indicates that the postnatal development of the corpus callosum is under the control of multiple, interacting influences which differ in the magnitude and quality of their effects. The data also support the conclusion, drawn from our results in prior studies, that normal visual stimulation is necessary for the stabilization of the normal complement of callosal projections.