[14C]2-deoxyglucose demonstration of the organization of ocular dominance in areas 17 and 18 of the normal cat.
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the spatial organization of ocular dominance in the visual cortex of the cat. We administered [14C]2-deoxyglucose ([14C]2-DG) to 4 alert, monocularly stimulated cats; one eye had previously been removed from 3 of these cats, and the other cat had received a uniocular injection of tetrodotoxin (TTX). In areas 17 and 18, but not in area 19, we observed alternating regions of heavy and light label, which were clearest in layer IV. Near the representation of the area centralis, especially in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the stimulated eye, the labeled regions formed columns that extended from the pial surface to the white matter. In the representation of peripheral retina, especially in the hemisphere contralateral to the stimulated eye, the pattern was often (but not always) restricted to the middle layers. We conclude that this pattern of label reflects the organization of ocular dominance because: (1) we never observed this pattern in control cats in which both eyes were stimulated or neither eye was stimulated; (2) many characteristics of the pattern are consistent with physiological studies of ocular dominance, and (3) the width and spacing of the alternating label was consistent with the size of the patches of geniculocortical afferents representing the left and right eyes in layer IV of areas 17 and 18.
D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D002415:Cats; D003837:Deoxy Sugars / Q000378:metabolism*; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D007700:Kinetics; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003837:Deoxy Sugars; D013779:Tetrodotoxin; D003847:Deoxyglucose