Effects of early monocular deprivation on development of cortico-geniculate projections in the cat

In 16 cats monocularly deprived from 2 to 3 weeks of age, we studied 53 striate cortical cells which were identified as projecting to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) on the basis of antidromic activation from LGN and of histological localization within cortical layer VI. As in the normal cat, these cortico-geniculate cells could be classified as slow, intermediate or fast, according to their axonal conduction velocities. The sampling ratio of the slow cells (mostly unresponsive to visual stimuli) was much higher than normal. On the other hand, the ratio of the intermediate (one half were simple cells) and fast cells (all except one were complex cells) was significantly lower than the norm. Also, the average axonal conduction velocities of the complex and simple cells were significantly slower than normal. These results suggest that normal maturation of cortico-geniculate cells, particularly fast and intermediate ones, is retarded or arrested by monocular visual deprivation.