Experience-dependent modifications of kitten striate cortex are not prevented by thalamic lesions that include the intralaminar nuclei

• Published in: Experimental brain research Vol. 70; no. 3; pp. 627 - 631
• Main Authors: BEAR, M. F, KLEINSCHMIDT, A, SINGER, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Springer 01-01-1988
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cats; Evoked Potentials, Visual; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Neuronal Plasticity; Optic Chiasm - physiology; Thalamic Nuclei - physiology; Thalamus - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Vision, Ocular - physiology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual Pathways - physiology; Fissipedia; Brain; Carnivora; Visual cortex; Central nervous system; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Visual pathway; Ocular dominance; Cat; Plasticity; Development; Thalamus; Diencephalon
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00247611

It has been shown previously that surgical lesions of the antero-medial thalamus interfere with ocular dominance modifications that normally result from monocular deprivation in young kittens (Singer 1982). The aim of the present study was to determine whether this effect was due specifically to the destruction of the visual cortical projections of the anterior intralaminar nuclei. We report here that large excitotoxin lesions of the anterior dorsal thalamus have no effect on the cortical response to monocular deprivation. These data indicate that the intralaminar projection is not essential for ocular dominance plasticity.