title: Functional recovery and morphological changes after injury to the optic nerve.
abstract: Physiological and morphological parameters of optic nerve lesions followed by functional recovery are discussed in detail. To study functional and/or morphological recovery processes, a recently developed model of the 'graded optic nerve crush' is compared with other models of lesioning. It is concluded that the optic nerve crush model is a valuable tool when studying brain repair mechanisms. First results show that functional recovery depends on the initial preservation of a sufficiently large population of ganglion cells in the retina. It takes place despite the progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells during the recovery period.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical School of Magdeburg, FRG.
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Sabel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aschoff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009409:Nerve Crush; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000473:pathology*; D020221:Optic Nerve Injuries