Behavioral studies on the effect of abnormal early visual experience in monkeys: Spatial modulation sensitivity

Harwerth, Ronald S.; Smith, Earl L.; Boltz, Roger L.; Crawford, Melba M.; Noorden, Gunter K. von

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(83)90162-1

Cited by 99 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…To generate strabismus by monocular surgery, they had to weaken one horizontal rectus by extirpation and advance the resected antagonist to the limbus. All subsequent investigators have employed some variant of a monocular recess/resect technique when using surgery to induce strabismus in monkeys (Crawford and von Noorden 1979;Harwerth et al 1986;Kiorpes 1989;Kiorpes and Boothe 1980;Kiorpes et al 1996Kiorpes et al , 1998. Their objective was to create an esotropia, often with amblyopia in the operated eye.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The earliest animal model relied on a surgical approach: cutting the medial rectus muscle in one eye to produce exotropia (Hubel and Wiesel 1965). Subsequent investigators have performed surgery on multiple muscles using a combination of recession, resection, and extirpation to induce ocular misalignment (Baker et al 1974;Crawford and von Noorden 1979;Harwerth et al 1983;Kiorpes and Boothe 1980;Kiorpes et al 1996;Von Noorden and Dowling 1970).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The visual axes can be dissociated by placing a prism of sufficient power before each eye to prevent fusion (Crawford and von Noorden 1980;Crawford et al 1996;Harwerth et al 1983;Mori et al 2002;Smith et al 1997;Wong et al 2003). Another approach employs complete occlusion of one eye.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ocular Motor Behavior in Macaques With Surgical Exotropia

Economides

Adams²,

Jocson³

et al. 2007

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Economides JR, Adams DL, Jocson CM, Horton JC. Ocular motor behavior in macaques with surgical exotropia. J Neurophysiol 98: 3411-3422, 2007. First published October 10, 2007 doi:10.1152/jn.00839.2007. To provide an animal model of human exotropia, a free tenotomy of the medial recti was performed in two infant macaques. When the animals were old enough to record eye movements with video eye trackers, we measured their ductions, ocular alignment, comitance, smooth pursuit, fixation preference, and gaze stability. Partial recovery of adduction occurred in each monkey from spontaneous re-attachment of the medial rectus muscle to the eye. However, each animal was left with a relatively comitant, large angle exotropia. The magnitude of the exotropia was not affected by covering one eye. There was no dissociated vertical deviation or any significant "A" or "V" pattern to the horizontal misalignment. Smooth pursuit was more accurate when tracking nasally compared with temporally in both animals. Compensatory catch-up saccades in the tracking eye were always accompanied by conjugate movements in the deviated eye. Despite tenotomy of the medial recti, the velocity of adducting saccades was normal. Both monkeys alternated fixation, preferring to use the left eye for targets on the left side and the right eye for targets on the right. Each animal was capable of switching fixation while making accurate saccades. One of the monkeys developed a vertical pendular nystagmus, which was most prominent in the deviated eye. Macaques with ocular misalignment from medial rectus tenotomy exhibit features that are present in humans with alternating exotropia. These animals will be valuable for probing the cortical mechanisms that underlie visual suppression in strabismus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ocular Motor Behavior in Macaques With Surgical Exotropia

Economides

Adams²,

Jocson³

et al. 2007

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…A brief period of monocular deprivation (MD) during early postnatal life causes functional depression of synapses in V1 that serve the deprived eye (1-7). Consequently, early-life MD severely and persistently degrades visual acuity through the deprived eye, which typically fails to recover spontaneously when binocular vision is restored (8)(9)(10). A critical step in developing targeted interventions for treating amblyopia is to identify strategies for reversing deprivation-driven synaptic modifications in V1.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rapid recovery from the effects of early monocular deprivation is enabled by temporary inactivation of the retinas

Fong

Mitchell

Duffy

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A half-century of research on the consequences of monocular deprivation (MD) in animals has revealed a great deal about the pathophysiology of amblyopia. MD initiates synaptic changes in the visual cortex that reduce acuity and binocular vision by causing neurons to lose responsiveness to the deprived eye. However, much less is known about how deprivation-induced synaptic modifications can be reversed to restore normal visual function. One theoretically motivated hypothesis is that a period of inactivity can reduce the threshold for synaptic potentiation such that subsequent visual experience promotes synaptic strengthening and increased responsiveness in the visual cortex. Here we have reduced this idea to practice in two species. In young mice, we show that the otherwise stable loss of cortical responsiveness caused by MD is reversed when binocular visual experience follows temporary anesthetic inactivation of the retinas. In 3-mo-old kittens, we show that a severe impairment of visual acuity is also fully reversed by binocular experience following treatment and, further, that prolonged retinal inactivation alone can erase anatomical consequences of MD. We conclude that temporary retinal inactivation represents a highly efficacious means to promote recovery of function. A mblyopia is a widespread form of human visual disability that arises from imbalanced visual experience in the two eyes during infancy or early childhood. The core pathophysiological process underlying amblyopia is ocular dominance plasticity in the primary visual cortex (V1). Ocular dominance plasticity, evolutionarily conserved in mammals with binocular vision, has become a classic paradigm for studying how brain development is influenced by experience and deprivation. A brief period of monocular deprivation (MD) during early postnatal life causes functional depression of synapses in V1 that serve the deprived eye (1-7). Consequently, early-life MD severely and persistently degrades visual acuity through the deprived eye, which typically fails to recover spontaneously when binocular vision is restored (8-10). A critical step in developing targeted interventions for treating amblyopia is to identify strategies for reversing deprivation-driven synaptic modifications in V1.The traditional approach to promote recovery following MD has been to occlude the strong eye to force vision through the weak amblyopic eye. This "reverse occlusion" approach has been validated in animals (11, 12) and represents the cornerstone of current treatment (patching therapy) of human amblyopia (13-16). However, this treatment has well-known limitations that include poor compliance, potential loss of vision through the newly patched eye, failure to recover binocular vision, and a declining treatment efficacy with age (15, 17-21). Nevertheless, the success of reverse occlusion strategies demonstrates that severely weakened synaptic inputs in the brain can be rejuvenated under appropriate circumstances.An insight into how reverse occlusion might promote recovery came fr...

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“…For example, how does the response of the neurons depend on behavioral states of the animal such as attention and motivation (7)(8)(9)(10)? Finally, long-term physiological studies are possible in awake primates, allowing the investigation of development (11) and plasticity of the brain (12,13).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High-resolution optical imaging of functional brain architecture in the awake monkey.

Grinvald

Frostig

Siegel

et al. 1991

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

253

123

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Optical imaging of the functional architecture of cortex, based on intrinsic signals, is a useful tool for the study of the development, organization, and function of the living mammalian brain. This relatively noninvasive technique is based on small activity-dependent changes of the optical properties of cortex. Thus far, functional imaging has been performed only on anesthetized animals. Here we establish that this technique is also suitable for exploring the brain of awake behaving primates. We designed a chronic sealed chamber and mounted it on the skull of a cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fasciculatis) over the primary visual cortex to permit imaging through a transparent glass window. Restriction of head position alone was sufficient to eliminate movement noise in awake monkey imaging experiments. High-resolution imaging of the ocular dominance columns and the cytochrome oxidase blobs was achieved simply by taking pictures of the exposed cortex when the awake monkey was viewing video movies alternatively with each eye. Furthermore, the functional maps could be obtained without synchronization of the data acquisition to the animal's respiration and the electrocardiogram. The wavelength dependency and time course of the intrinsic signal were similar in anesthetized and awake monkeys, indicating that the signal sources were the same. We therefore conclude that optical imaging is well suited for exploring functional organization related to higher cognitive brain functions of the primate as well as providing a diagnostic tool for delineating functional cortical borders and assessing proper functions of human patients during neurosurgery.The awake monkey preparation has offered many advantages for the study of higher cognitive functions (1). First, there are many questions that cannot be investigated by using anesthetized animals, simply because the brain of the anesthetized animal cannot perform the same remarkable computational tasks that the awake brain performs, especially in cortical regions other than primary sensory areas (2-6). Second, by manipulating the animal's behavior, it has been possible to begin to answer questions about the neuronal basis of higher cognitive functions. For example, how does the response of the neurons depend on behavioral states of the animal such as attention and motivation (7-10)? Finally, long-term physiological studies are possible in awake primates, allowing the investigation of development (11) and plasticity of the brain (12, 13).Single unit recordings have been used for most of the recent explorations in the awake monkey preparation (12)(13)(14)(15)(16). This powerful technique is limited, however, to the measurement of the activity of very few neurons at a time. Local field potential measurement of brain activity has been made (17-19); however, its resolution is inadequate for high-resolution functional mapping of cortex. Furthermore, the interpretation of the results may be difficult due to the nonisotropic electrical properties of cortical tissue.Two optical method...

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Behavioral studies on the effect of abnormal early visual experience in monkeys: Spatial modulation sensitivity

Cited by 99 publications

References 29 publications

Ocular Motor Behavior in Macaques With Surgical Exotropia

Ocular Motor Behavior in Macaques With Surgical Exotropia

Rapid recovery from the effects of early monocular deprivation is enabled by temporary inactivation of the retinas

High-resolution optical imaging of functional brain architecture in the awake monkey.

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