Recovery of function is not associated with proliferation of retinogeniculate synapses after chronic deafferentation in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the adult cat.

A restricted recovery of visual excitation occurs in the partially deafferented dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the cat after retinal lesions. In the absence of axonal growth an increase of retinogeniculate synapses at the peripheral dendrites of deafferented cells could be a possible underlying mechanism. We labeled optic tract terminals with horseradish peroxidase and [3H]proline. The size and density of labeled boutons in the vicinity of regions deafferented by chronic retinal lesions were not different from those in normal parts of the dLGN. There was no indication for synaptic proliferation as a response to partial visual deafferentiation in the adult cat dLGN.