title: Preservation of vision by the pulvinar following early-life primary visual cortex lesions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Conscious vision is believed to depend upon an intact primary visual cortex (V1), although injury in early life is often accompanied by the preservation of visual capacity, unlike in adulthood. The middle temporal area (MT) receives input from the retinorecipient koniocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and the more recently described medial subdivision of the inferior pulvinar (PIm) of the thalamus, pathways that potentially contribute to preservation of vision after early damage to V1.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We examined the potential of these pathways to the long-term preservation of vision after permanent lesions of primate V1 in early and adult life by using a combination of neural tracing and diffusion MRI. We show that early-life V1 lesions lead to less pruning of the retina-pulvinar-MT pathway than is observed in control or adult lesion animals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that sustained visual input through the pulvinar to MT following a lesion of V1 in early life has the capacity to afford improved visual outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Claire E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Warner
authors.affiliation: Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.affiliation: The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; School of Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Leigh A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Gary F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.affiliation: Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. Electronic address: james.bourne@monash.edu.
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bourne
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D002144:Callithrix / Q000502:physiology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D056347:Neuroanatomical Tract-Tracing Techniques; D020649:Pulvinar / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*