Guido W, Spear P D, Tong L
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706.
Exp Brain Res. 1990;83(1):219-24. doi: 10.1007/BF00232212.
Previous studies have shown that functional compensation is present in the cat's posteromedial lateral suprasylvian (PMLS) area of cortex after damage to areas 17, 18, and 19 (visual cortex) early in life but not after damage in adults. These studies all have investigated animals with a unilateral visual cortex lesion, whereas all behavioral studies of compensation for early visual cortex damage have investigated animals with a bilateral lesion. In the present experiment, we investigated whether functional compensation also is present in PMLS cortex after a bilateral visual cortex lesion early in life. We recorded from single neurons in the PMLS cortex of adult cats that had received a bilateral lesion of areas 17, 18, and 19 on the day of birth or at 8 weeks of age. We found that PMLS cells in both groups of cats had functional compensation (normal direction selectivity and ocular dominance) similar to that seen after a unilateral lesion at the same ages. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that PMLS cortex is involved in the behavioral compensation seen after early visual cortex damage. In addition, the results indicate that inputs from contralateral visual cortex are not necessary for the development of functional compensation seen in PMLS cortex.
先前的研究表明，在生命早期损伤17、18和19区（视觉皮层）后，猫的皮层后内侧上薛氏回（PMLS）区域存在功能代偿，但成年后损伤则不会出现这种情况。这些研究均调查了单侧视觉皮层损伤的动物，而所有关于早期视觉皮层损伤代偿的行为学研究均调查了双侧损伤的动物。在本实验中，我们研究了生命早期双侧视觉皮层损伤后PMLS皮层是否也存在功能代偿。我们记录了出生当天或8周龄时接受17、18和19区双侧损伤的成年猫PMLS皮层中的单个神经元活动。我们发现，两组猫的PMLS细胞都具有功能代偿（正常的方向选择性和眼优势），类似于相同年龄单侧损伤后的情况。这些结果与PMLS皮层参与早期视觉皮层损伤后行为代偿的假说一致。此外，结果表明，对侧视觉皮层的输入对于PMLS皮层中所见的功能代偿的发展并非必要。
