Behavioral studies of the sensitive periods of development of visual functions in monkeys

Behav Brain Res. 1990 Dec 21;41(3):179-98. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(90)90107-p.

Abstract

The age-dependent effects of monocular form deprivation on psychophysically determined visual functions were investigated in rhesus monkeys. Monocular form deprivation was initiated at various ages from 1 to 25 months and maintained for 18 months. The effects of form deprivation varied across the visual functions evaluated. Absolute scotopic sensitivity was depressed by form deprivation initiated only at 1 or 2 months of age. Photopic, increment-threshold spectral sensitivity functions showed alterations in sensitivity levels for monkeys treated at 5 months of age or earlier, with no effect thereafter. Monocular form deprivation at 1 to 5 months of age resulted in profound deficits in spatial modulation sensitivity. The effects on spatial vision decreased systematically as the age of onset was delayed from age 6 to 18 months. Finally, binocular summation measures revealed an absence of binocular vision even for the monkey form-deprived at 25 months of age, i.e. the experimental treatment series failed to define the upper limit of the age-range for the effects of monocular form deprivation on binocular summation mechanisms. Comparisons of the age-dependent effects of monocular form deprivation across the various functions demonstrated that the sensitive period, i.e. the period of life during which a visual function may be altered by monocular form deprivation, was different for each of the psychophysical measures of visual function.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Color Perception / physiology
  • Critical Period, Psychological*
  • Dominance, Cerebral / physiology
  • Macaca mulatta
  • Male
  • Neuronal Plasticity / physiology*
  • Photoreceptor Cells / physiology
  • Psychophysics
  • Refraction, Ocular
  • Sensory Deprivation / physiology
  • Sensory Thresholds / physiology
  • Vision, Binocular / physiology
  • Visual Pathways / physiology*
  • Visual Perception / physiology*