Single-units were recorded from the nucleus of the optic tract. Most of the units showed excitation in response to random check patterns presented on a tangent screen to the contralateral eye, moving in a temporal to nasal direction and/or inhibition in the opposite direction. The excitatory response to the temporal to nasal movement, observed in most units, was unchanged throughout the range of speeds tested, except for a decrease at the slowest (0.6 deg/s) and fastest (150 deg/s) speeds. On the other hand, the inhibitory responses evoked by a nasal to temporal movement, had a peak between 3 and 16 deg/s which decreased towards both extremes. An average of 45% of the units were influenced by the stimulation of the ipsilateral eye. In one third of them the response was very weak. In the remainder, the mean frequency of spikes in one direction of the horizontal movement was more than twice that in the opposite stimulus direction. In the great majority of these units, stimulation of each eye yielded the same overall pattern of directionality, that is, movement of the stimulus towards the recording side led to excitation and/or movement in the reverse direction led to inhibition. Inhibition was stronger than excitation in most ipsilaterally responding units. Excitatory responses elicited by the ipsilateral eye were always weaker than those by the contralateral but in a few cases the ipsilateral inhibitory component was more prominent than the contralateral one.

In this study, we have examined the genesis of neurons of the retinal ganglion cell layer of the opossum Didelphis marsupialis by [3H]-thymidine autoradiography. Our results suggest that most neurons surviving to adulthood are generated in postnatal life from day 1 to day 23. Cells are generated according to a coarse gradient from the retinal geometric center to the periphery. Regional analysis of soma size distributions in different cohorts suggest that this gradient is actually formed by two partially-overlapping, concentric waves of cell proliferation. Most medium and large ganglion cells are formed during the early wave, whereas most displaced amacrine cells and small ganglion cells are formed during the late wave. Our results confirm the appropriateness of the opossum as a model for studies of development of the mammalian visual system.

Binocular visual responses can be recorded in two regions of the superficial layers of the superior colliculus of the opossum. The direct binocular region (DBR) represents the binocular portion of the contralateral hemifield whereas the rostral pole (RP) represents the binocular portion of the ipsilateral hemifield. In the present study single units from both of these regions were tested with binocular and monocular stimulation. Most cells in both regions showed response facilitation when both eyes were simultaneously stimulated and, when tested with different binocular disparities, most cells showed broadly-tuned disparity selectivity. DBR units usually preferred disparities near zero whereas RP units had a wider range of preferred disparities, with a tendency toward positive (crossed) values. This data indicates that the superior colliculus of the opossum could provide a neural substrate for a coarse analysis of depth and also might help control vergence eye movements. The different ranges of disparity selectivity of DBR and RP are consistent with the previously reported monocular receptive-field data and suggest that DBR and RP analyze different depths of the 3-dimensional visual scene.

Reference axes for the visuotopic study of the opossum's striate cortex were estimated from corresponding binocular response fields using multi-unit recording. These central binocular axes (CBA) were derived from experimental data based on the concept that corresponding receptive fields for each eye should be mostly in register under natural conditions. Vertical reference meridians, orthogonal to these axes, define a contralateral and an ipsilateral field for each eye with respect to the recording site. An ipsilateral field representation was observed for both eyes in the striate cortex at the transition zone with peristriate. Maximal values for the center and border of ipsilateral receptive fields were, respectively, 8 and 20 degrees for the contralateral eye and 6 and 14 degrees for the ipsilateral eye. An equivalent ipsilateral field representation was found in animals that had the anterior commissure cut prior to the recording session. This suggests that the ipsilateral field of both eyes may be represented in the striate cortex via the ipsilateral optic tract. Additionally, it was observed that the region of higher ganglion cell density in the retina shows a flattened distribution and that the CBA intersects the retina at the temporal aspect of this region.

No abstract