Column spacing in normal and visually deprived monkeys

A recent model for the development of the pattern of eye-dominance domains in primary visual cortex predicts that stimulus conditions during early visual life determine the spacing (or periodicity) of ocular dominance columns (ODC). The model predicts that normal binocular visual experience consists of highly correlated binocular stimulation and leads to relatively narrow ODC spacing, while abnormal binocular visual stimulation attendant with strabismus consists of non-correlated, incoherent, and asynchronous stimulation and leads to wider than normal ODC spacing. Evidence in support of the model has been presented for strabismus in the kitten. We tested the predictions of the model in normal monkeys and others subjected to various forms of abnormal visual experience during infancy. We identified and measured the inter-column spacing (or periodicity) in the V1 cortex of 19 adult monkeys (M. mulatta) using the cytochrome-oxidase (CO) histochemical method. There were no significant differences in the V1 inter-column spacing between normal adult monkeys (n=5) and other adult monkeys having had monocular-form deprivation (n=5), experimental anisometropia (n=5), or experimental strabismus (n=4) early in life. The quality of early binocular visual experience is not a significant determinant of the inter-column spacing in primate V1 cortex. Therefore, the model predicting an increase in the ODC periodicity with strabismus is not supported.