Visual experience without lines: effect on developing cortical neurons.
Kittens were reared in a planetarium-like visual environment that lacked straight line contours. Cortical neurons were subsequently highly sensitive to spots of light but not to straight lines, in marked contrast to those from a normal cat. If linear contour processing is an innate function it appears to be subject to substantial modification by early visual experience.
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D003624:Darkness; D005556:Form Perception; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*