Depth perception, eye alignment and cortical ocular dominance of dark-related cats

On first exposure to light, animals that have been reared from birth until about 4 months of age in total darkness exhibit substantial visual and visuomotor deficits, which decline in severity during the first few months following exposure to light. In order to determine whether dark-reared animals eventually acquire stereoscopic vision following exposure to light we examined the binocular status of 5 dark-reared animals two of which developed convergent eye alignment. The binocular status was assessed behaviorally by measurements of the ability of each animal to perceive depth using either one or both eyes, and physiologically by documentation of the distribution of cortical ocular dominance of a sample of visual acuity, their binocular depth perception remained very poor, comparable to the monocular performance of normal cats. In marked contrast to normal animals none of the dark-reared animals, even those with normal eye alignment, performed substantially better binocularly than monocularly, a result indicating the absence of a uniquely binocular mechanism for depth perception in these animals. Although the dark-reared animals were found to retain a substantial (but reduced) complement of binocularly influenced cortical neurons, the tuning of these cells for retinal disparity must be insufficiently precise to mediate depth perception under binocular viewing conditions that is superior to that which can be achieved monocularly.