Early-stage recovery after visual cortical damage for blindsight

It is well known that humans and nonhuman primates can retain residual visuomotor abilities following chronic damage to the primary visual cortex (V1), a phenomenon known as blindsight. Sepe et al. investigated the behavior of monkeys with unilateral V1 lesions during a visually guided saccade task in the early post-lesion stage. Their study revealed that recovery initially manifests as atypical behavior, characterized by less accurate saccade trajectories and longer reaction times, while responses were nonetheless reliably triggered by the visual presentation of targets within the scotoma. Such detailed, fine-grained behavioral analyses provide valuable insights into the processes underlying functional recovery following V1 lesions.