Binocular competitive interactions and recovery of visual acuity in long-term monocularly deprived cats

Changes in visual acuity brought about by altering competitive interactions between the eyes of cats monocularly deprived (MD) from natural eye opening to 7-12 months of age were studied. In MD cats given binocular experience, median visual acuity using the deprived eye was 0.75 c/deg. If the deprived eye was given a slight competitive advantage via reverse-suture, median visual acuity reached 1.52 c/deg. Further, giving the deprived eye the greatest competitive advantage was accomplished by complete removal of the experienced eye which yielded a median deprived eye acuity of 2.3 c/deg. Obstacle avoidance and stimulus size data were also obtained. The previously published electrophysiological effects of these manipulations on striate cortical cells were noted to mirror these increases in visual acuity and this correlation was discussed, as were the effects of analogous manipulations in the monkey and man.