[Period of sensitivity of the primary visual cortex of the cat to the unilateral suppression of extraocular proprioceptive afferents].

Unilateral suppression of extraocular proprioceptive afferents, which run through the ophthalmic branch of the Vth nerve, disrupted binocular integration in the primary visual cortex of normally reared kittens, when it was performed between 4 and 8 weeks of postnatal age. One month later, half the visual cortical cells were exclusively activated through one eye. A similar disorganization of binocularity was observed in visually deprived Kittens when unilateral lesion was performed at 6 weeks of age. We conclude that the loss of binocular integration is caused by non visual factors, probably related to asymmetry between proprioceptive informations from each eye.