[Dissymmetry in the interhemispheric transfer between visual areas in the adult cat, induced by chiasmotomy and...

In the adult cat, a midsagittal section of the optic chiasm, which deprives each hemisphere of about half of its visual afferences, is followed after 6 weeks by a change in the callosal interhemispheric transfer, if one eye was occluded during the whole postoperative recovery period, thus depriving one hemisphere of direct visual messages related to patterned vision: with respect to controls only chiasmotomized, with binocular visual experience during an identical postoperative period, the deprived hemisphere displayed a significantly larger callosal afferent traffic while its own callosal efferences were on the contrary significantly reduced. This dissymmetry reveals that important postoperative changes can thus take place even in the adult animal.