Shaw C, Cynader M
Nature. 1984;308(5961):731-4. doi: 10.1038/308731a0.
Abundant evidence now indicates that atypical visual exposure early in the life of cats and primates can cause profound alterations in cortical organization. In particular, it has been shown that preventing the use of one eye for vision early in life results in a marked shift of ocular preference among neurones of kitten visual cortex in favour of the exposed eye. The cellular mechanisms underlying these alterations remain uncertain, but much recent attention has focused on the possible role of pharmacological agents in modifying cortical plasticity, with particular reference to catecholamines. These experiments, which have shown that agents which modify cortical noradrenaline levels can alter the degree of cortical plasticity, do not specify the mechanism of action, and leave open the possibility that other neurotransmitter systems may also be involved in cortical modifiability. We now report that chronic intracortical administration of L-glutamate during a period of monocular vision imposed on young kittens largely prevents the ocular dominance shift which normally occurs under these circumstances.
大量证据表明，猫和灵长类动物在生命早期非典型的视觉暴露会导致皮质组织发生深刻变化。特别是，研究表明，在生命早期阻止一只眼睛用于视觉，会导致小猫视觉皮质神经元的眼优势明显转向受刺激的眼睛。这些变化背后的细胞机制尚不确定，但最近很多研究都集中在药物制剂在调节皮质可塑性方面可能发挥的作用，尤其是儿茶酚胺。这些实验表明，改变皮质去甲肾上腺素水平的药物可以改变皮质可塑性的程度，但没有明确作用机制，也没有排除其他神经递质系统也可能参与皮质可塑性的可能性。我们现在报告，在幼小猫单眼视觉期间长期进行皮质内注射L-谷氨酸，在很大程度上可防止在此种情况下通常会发生的眼优势转移。
