The ipsilateral optic pathway to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus in mice with prenatal or postnatal loss of one eye

Abstract

The projections, and more particularly the ipsilateral projections, from the retina to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dlGn) and the superior colliculus have been investigated in adult mice of the C57BL/6J strain after rearing in one of four different conditions: 1) after normal visual experience; 2) after unilateral enucleation at birth; 3) in mice with congenital unilateral anophthalmia (in which only one eye develops) 4) in mice with congenital unilateral microphthalmia (in which one eye is of reduced size while the other is normal). In neonatally enucleated and congenitally monocular mice there is an aberrant uncrossed pathway to regions of the dlGn and the superior colliculus which do not normally receive such a projection. This projection is limited in its distribution; in both the neonatally enucleated and the congenitally monocular animals the uncrossed projection does not reach the lateral and dorsal parts of the dlGn and it only innervates the rostral half of the superior colliculus. The density of the uncrossed pathway in these animals is highest in those regions in which the normal uncrossed pathway terminates. In microphthalmic mice the expansion of the uncrossed pathway is less marked than in monocular mice. In the superior colliculus the aberrant uncrossed projections innervate the stratum griseum superficiale where they are often found distributed in small patches. An intertectal crossing of retinal fibers is described from the contralateral superior colliculus to the deprived ipsilateral superior colliculus.