| Abstract: | Evoked responses of the lateral geniculate body and visual cortex to stimulation of the contralateral eye with flashes were recorded in rabbits kept in total darkness from birth until the age of 2–3 months. The experiments were carried out under pentobarbital anesthesia and dark adaptation conditions. By contrast with the marked decrease in amplitude of primary visual cortical responses in the visually deprived animals, the amplitudes and temporal parameters of the LGB evoked responses were virtually identical with the corresponding parameters in the control animals. These results suggest that disturbances arising in rabbits as a result of early visual deprivation are localized mainly at the cortical level. The possible mechanisms lying at the basis of the functional disturbances in rabbits reared under conditions of visual deprivation are discussed.Brain Institute, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 504–509, September–October, 1978. |
