Effect of visual deprivation on the optic centers of growing and adult mice

Abstract

The thickness of the visual cortex, the diameter of cell nuclei and the mean volume of internuclear material per nucleus in the visual cortex, geniculate bodies and superior colliculi were determined in growing and adult mice. The influence of prolonged stay in complete darkness was investigated.In the visual cortex of normal mice, a peak in nuclear size occurred 20-30 days after birth, followed by a peak in relative volume of internuclear material.In growing mice, reared in darkness from birth, a highly significant decrease in relative volume of internuclear material occurred in all visual centers. The decrease was greatest in the geniculate bodies and greater in the granular and supragranular layers of the cortex than in the infragranular. In the cortex, the decrease was most pronounced after two months and became less pronounced during prolonged stay in darkness. No similar normalization was observed in subcortical visual centers. In the same mice, visual deprivation caused a highly significant decrease in the thickness of the visual cortex and in the diameter of its cell nuclei. The dgcrease in nuclear diameter was greater in the granular and supragranular than in the infragranular layers of the cortex and exhibited a similar normalization during prolonged stay in darkness as the decrease in relative volume of internuclear material.In adult mice, visual deprivation caused decrease in internuclear material.

Absence of change in some measures of cortical morphology in dark-reared adult rats

“…These data confinn and extend the report of Gyllensten et al (1965) who found (in mice) a relative decrease in the volume of internuclear material and cortical thickness at land 2 months and subsequent partial normalization at 4 months. We find complete normalization in rats at 7 months.…”

“…Krech et al (1963) reported a greater decrease in subcortical optical areas than in striate cortex in 80-day-old blinded rats. Gyllensten et al (1965) reported the eventual normalization of hypotrophy in cortical but not subcortical areas of mice that had been dark-reared and never exposed to light; and Maletta & Timiras (1968) found a decrease in cboline acetyltransferase activity and total protein content in subcorticaJ but not cortical areas after dark-rearing.…”

Context and Animal Behavior III: The Relationship Between Early Development and Evolutionary Persistence of Ground Squirrel Antisnake Behavior

“…Rhoades & Chalupa, 1978;Rothblat, Schwartz, & Kasdan, 1978). These results suggest that spontaneous neural activity (see Gyllensten, Malmfors, & Norrlin, 1965;Rutledge, 1978) can act as a buffer, maintaining neural circuit integrity. Similarly, spontaneous neural activity or other perceptual-behavioral contexts, such as perceiving snake-like substrate features like curled leaves and sticks, or occasional harmless, cold-adapted garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.)…”

The period of susceptibility to the physiological effects of unilateral eye closure in kittens

“…Light microscopic observations in darkraised mice indicate that the visual cortex is thinner than in the normal animal (Gyllensten, Malmfors & Norrlin, 1965). It has been reported by Valverde (1967) that in such mice the number of spines on apical dendrites of layer V pyramidal cells are reduced in the parts passing through layer IV.…”