Further evidence of an early critical period in the development of the cat's dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus.

The concept of an early postnatal critical period of development for the lateral geniculate nucleus was assessed by determining in adult cats whether previously established properties of geniculate neurons could be altered by varying the cat's visual experience. The analysis was limited to lamina A1 and the binocular segment of lamina A, and the properties studied were the percentage of physiologically recorded Y-cells and cell soma size. Eleven experimental cats in four groups were studied, and three cats reared normally plus three cats reared with continuous monocular lid suture served as controls. Two cats raised first with monocular suture followed by a prolonged period in adulthood with both eyes open had cell size distributions and Y-cell proportions that were indistinguishable from cats raised with continuous monocular suture. Four cats raised first with one eye sutured underwent a reverse suture procedure in adulthood (i.e., the originally sutured eye opened and the other closed) and were maintained in this fashion for a prolonged period. These cats also had geniculate cell size distributions and Y-cell proportions that were indistinguishable from cats raised with continuous monocular suture. Two cats were raised first with binocular suture followed by a prolonged period in adulthood with one eye opened. Their geniculate cell size distributions and Y-cell proportions showed no effect on the adult monocular deprivation and were indistinguishable from previously published data concerning cats raised with continuous binocular suture. Finally, three normally raised cats underwent a prolonged period of monocular suture in adulthood. Their geniculate cell size distributions and Y-cell proportions showed no effects on the adult monocular deprivation. From these data, we conclude that an early critical period of development occurs for geniculate cell sizes and Y-cell proportions. Adult visual environments, whether normal or abnormal, had no detectable effect on geniculate neurons for these previously developed properties, whether normal or abnormal.