Ocular dominance plasticity restored by NA infusion to aplastic visual cortex of anesthetized and paralyzed kittens.

We studied the ocular dominance distribution in visual cortex of kittens which had been monocularly exposed to moving-pattern stimuli under anesthesia and paralysis. 1. We did not obtain any discernible changes in ocular dominance, confirming the previous reports that anesthesia and paralysis prevent ocular dominance plasticity from occurring. 2. The plasticity, however, was restored under the acute experimental condition by a cortical infusion of 1-noradrenaline (1-NA). In the 1-NA-infused visual cortex, the ocular dominance distribution was clearly shifted to the open eye after monocular exposure for about 20-24 h. 3. We also studied how quickly and to what extent the changes were induced when the duration of the combined treatment was varied. The results were: (i) the earliest change was observed in approximately 12 h with disappearance of binocular cells, (ii) the treatment was most effective after 20-24 h in inducing the shift of ocular dominance, and (iii) the treatment longer than 24 h (up to 45 h) did not necessarily enhance the shift, though the state of reduced binocularity was sustained throughout. 4. The effects of the cortical 1-NA infusion combined with monocular exposure became less with increasing the age of experimental animals, suggesting the presence of the "susceptible period" in the acute experiments. 5. The effects seemed to become smaller toward the end of a given recording session, suggesting that the restored plasticity wanes with time. The present results further support the idea that the direct activation of the NA system enhances cortical plasticity, in principle, independent of general conditions of experimental animals.