Freeman R D
Arch Ital Biol. 1978 Sep;116(3-4):338-51.
Kittens appear visually immature at eye opening and studies were conducted to trace changes with maturity. Longitudinal determinations of optical quality indicate that optical factors may not limit visual performance in young kittens. Estimates of visual axis alignment in alert kittens at various ages show that functional visual divergence does not occur even when the pupillary axes are divergently misaligned. It is thus possible that fused binocular vision may occur in very young kittens, suggesting that procedures that disrupt binocularity may have effects at the cortical level. Single-unit analysis of striate cortex in kittens monocularly deprived for varying periods during the first three postnatal weeks confirms this possibility. Effects are also found for kittens reared with monocular defocus to simulate anisometropia. Binocular recovery from the effects of monocular deprivation is found to be quite limited in kittens given binocular exposure following unilateral lid-suture. The recovery that occurs requires active visual input rather than a cessation of imbalance in the two eyes. A long period of binocular exposure appears to be ineffective in restoring binocular connections in a cat reared with optically induced strabismus.
小猫在睁眼时视觉上显得不成熟，因此开展了一些研究来追踪其随成熟度的变化。光学质量的纵向测定表明，光学因素可能不会限制幼小猫的视觉表现。对不同年龄段警觉小猫视轴对齐情况的估计显示，即使瞳孔轴呈发散性错位，功能性视觉发散也不会出现。因此，非常年幼的小猫有可能出现融合性双眼视觉，这表明破坏双眼性的操作可能会在皮质层面产生影响。对出生后前三周内单眼剥夺不同时长的小猫纹状皮质进行的单单位分析证实了这种可能性。对用单眼散焦饲养以模拟屈光参差的小猫也发现了影响。在单侧眼睑缝合后给予双眼暴露的小猫中，单眼剥夺效应的双眼恢复非常有限。所发生的恢复需要主动视觉输入，而不是两眼失衡的停止。长时间的双眼暴露似乎无法恢复用光学诱导斜视饲养的猫的双眼连接。
