The Puzzle of Visual Development: Behavior and Neural Limits

Abstract

The development of visual function takes place over many months or years in primate infants. Visual sensitivity is very poor near birth and improves over different times courses for different visual functions. The neural mechanisms that underlie these processes are not well understood despite many decades of research. The puzzle arises because research into the factors that limit visual function in infants has found surprisingly mature neural organization and adult-like receptive field properties in very young infants. The high degree of visual plasticity that has been documented during the sensitive period in young children and animals leaves the brain vulnerable to abnormal visual experience. Abnormal visual experience during the sensitive period can lead to amblyopia, a developmental disorder of vision affecting ϳ3% of children. This review provides a historical perspective on research into visual development and the disorder amblyopia. The mismatch between the status of the primary visual cortex and visual behavior, both during visual development and in amblyopia, is discussed, and several potential resolutions are considered. It seems likely that extrastriate visual areas further along the visual pathways may set important limits on visual function and show greater vulnerability to abnormal visual experience. Analyses based on multiunit, population activity may provide useful representations of the information being fed forward from primary visual cortex to extrastriate processing areas and to the motor output.

Learning to see again: biological constraints on cortical plasticity and the implications for sight restoration technologies

“…Because we assume that most visual prostheses will be implanted in late blind individuals suffering from binocular loss (at least in the foreseeable future), certain important fields in the cortical plasticity literature are neglected in this review. These include the effects of stroke or trauma within subcortical or cortical structures, monocular deprivation (for reviews see Levi et al 2015, Kiorpes 2016), and the development of cross-modal plasticity (for review see, Bavelier and Neville 2002, Lewis and Fine 2011) since this tends to be relatively limited in late blind individuals (for discussion see Collignon et al 2013). We close by discussing what is known about brain plasticity in sight restoration patients and discuss biological mechanisms that might eventually be harnessed to improve perceptual learning.…”

Learning to See Again: Biological Constraints on Cortical Plasticity and the Implications for Sight Restoration Technologies

“…Because we assume that most visual prostheses will be implanted in late blind individuals suffering from binocular loss (at least in the foreseeable future), certain important fields in the cortical plasticity literature are neglected in this review. These include the effects of stroke or trauma within subcortical or cortical structures, monocular deprivation (for reviews see Levi et al 2015, Kiorpes 2016, and the development of cross-modal plasticity (for review see, Neville 2002, Lewis and since this tends to be far more limited in late than early blind individuals (for discussion see Collignon et al 2013). We close by discussing what is known about brain plasticity in sight restoration patients and discuss biological mechanisms that might eventually be harnessed to improve perceptual learning.…”

“…The goal of the present review is to briefly summarize the vast basic science literature on developmental and adult cortical plasticity with an emphasis on how this literature might relate to the field of sight recovery. Because we assume that most sight recovery technologies will be implanted in late blind individuals suffering from binocular loss (at least in the foreseeable future) certain important fields in the cortical plasticity literature are neglected in this review, including the effects of monocular deprivation (for reviews see Levi et al 2015, Kiorpes 2016 and the development of cross-modal plasticity that occurs within congenitally blind individuals (for review see, Neville 2002, Lewis andFine 2011).…”

Relação entre a infecção gestacional por Zika vírus (ZIKV) e alterações na acuidade visual e desenvolvimento visual em bebês e crianças de duas coortes: Jundiaí e Rio de Janeiro

“…Ao nascer, o desempenho visual é muito baixo em várias funções visuais (por ex. acuidade visual, visão de cores, visão de contrastes) e vai melhorando ao decorrer de períodos de tempo que são diferentes para cada uma das funções visuais (Braddick & Atkinson, 2011;Jacobs & Blakemore, 1988;Kiorpes, 2016;Leat et al, 2009;Lewis & Maurer, 2005).…”

“…As diferentes funções visuais possuem variadas estruturas visuais e corticais responsáveis pelo seu desenvolvimento (8.6. Apêndice 6), cada uma com diversos períodos de desenvolvimento (Banks & Bennett, 1988;Braddick & Atkinson, 2011;Kiorpes, 2016;Lewis & Maurer, 2005).…”