Excitatory binocular neurons are lost following prismatic binocular dissociation in infant monkeys

Abstract

Four infant rhesus monkeys had prismatic dissociation of binocular vision by viewing the world through prisms. Those monkeys tested previously for ability to utilize horizontal disparity cues in detection of dynamic random dot stereograms, were found here to have few excitatory binocular neurons in visual cortex (V1). Each eye was well represented in the monocular ability to drive cortical neurons, whilst stimulus orientation tuning appeared normal in the monocular neurons, but somewhat less sensitive in the remaining binocular neurons. Binocular dissociation early in life constitutes conditions unfavorable for the maintenance of neural connections delivering binocular excitation to the visual cortex.