The effect of visual deprivation on perceptual behavior

It is concluded that visual cortex neurons with very selective receptive fields are particularly important in mediating visual form discrimination and fine spatial adjustments in visually deprived cats.

Abstract

Monocularly reared cats manifest profound initial deficiencies in perceptualmotor coordination, in depth estimation on a visual cliff, and in the ability to discriminate visual forms differing in orientation when using only their deprived eyes. When the cats were subsequently exposed to a normal visual environment, not all these deficits proved permanent. Only the discrimination of visual form, the interocular transfer of form discrimination from the deprived to the experienced eye, and fine visually-guided spatial adjustments remained permanently absent. The more permanent visual deficiencies cannot be attributed to scotomata nor to losses in visual resolution, since measurements of visual acuity utilizing an optokinetic response elicited by fine black moving lines did not reveal large losses in resolution. The comparison of the neurophysiological and behavioral analysis on the same visually deprived cats leads us to conclude that visual cortex neurons with very selective receptive fields are particularly important in mediating visual form discrimination and fine spatial adjustments.