On the distribution of retinal afferents to the primate lateral geniculate nucleus.
A quantitative study has been carried out on the number of synaptic ring images, visible after neurofibrillar silver impregnation, in laminae 5 and 6 of the primate lateral geniculate nucleus in normal animals and after enucleation of the contralateral eye. In a statistical experiment the number of rings was found to be significantly increased between 6 and 11 d after unilateral enucleation in both lamina 6 and lamina 5 of the contralateral geniculate nucleus. Analysis of the time course of ring proliferation suggests the presence of 2 separate generative processes in lamina 6 at different times after enucleation. Only the second of these processes appears to exist in lamina 5. It is proposed that these observations are compatible with the hypothesis that there is a diffuse, sparse projection of collaterals of retinal Y axons from one eye to more than one lamina of the lateral geniculate nucleus.
D000818:Animals; D007839:Functional Laterality; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000166:cytology*; D006652:Histological Techniques; D008251:Macaca / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008252:Macaca fascicularis / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000166:cytology*; D013508:Ophthalmologic Surgical Procedures; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology*; D013569:Synapses; D014794:Visual Fields