title: Neuroplasticity after unilateral visual cortex damage in the newborn cat.
abstract: Anatomical, electrophysiological, and behavioral studies implicate extrastriate cortex as a major contributor to the sparing of visually guided behaviors following lesions of primary visual cortex incurred early in life. Here we report considerable sparing of the ability to detect and localize stimuli in the hemifield contralateral to unilateral early lesions of all contiguous visually-responsive primary and extrastriate cortical regions (occipital, visuoparietal, and visuotemporal cortices). In the adult cat this same lesion induces a dense blindness and cats are unable to orient to any visual stimulus introduced into the contralesional hemifield. In the absence of cortical circuits, the neural sparing identified following the neonatal lesion is based on the superior colliculus and it occurs despite massive retrograde transynaptic degeneration of large numbers of retinal ganglion cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cerebral Dynamics, Plasticity and Rehabilitation, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, 700 Albany Street, W-702 Boston, MA 02118, USA. rushmore@bu.edu
authors.forename: R Jarrett
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rushmore
authors.forename: Bertram R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Payne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology; D012183:Retrograde Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology