Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:18:52.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spectral sensitivity of monocularly deprived cats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Zijiang J. He  and
Michael S. Loop
Zijiang J. He
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge
Michael S. Loop
Affiliation:
Department of Physiological Optics, School of Optometry, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The reports of rod-dominated psychophysical spectral sensitivity from the deprived eye of monocularly lid-sutured (MD) monkeys are intriguing but difficult to reconcile with the absence of any reported deprivation effects in retina. As most studies of MD retina have been from cat, we have examined psychophysically the increment threshold spectral sensitivity of MD cats using both reaction time and simultaneous two-choice behavioral procedures. Although the deprived eyes exhibited an absolute increment threshold sensitivity deficit, both rod and cone spectral sensitivity functions were obtained on large white backgrounds. This normal transition from rod to cone vision, as background luminance increased, was also found in threshold vs. intensity functions. Using their deprived eye, some cats exhibited a rod spectral sensitivity function when a smaller, normally photopic, background was used providing some support for a hypothesis that the rod-dominated spectral sensitivity observed in monkey may represent detection of scattered stimulus light. Alternatively monocular deprivation may reveal a rod-dominated mechanism which exists in monkey but not in cat.

Keywords

Visual deprivationCatSpectral sensitivityThreshold vs. intensity
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 9 , Issue 6 , December 1992 , pp. 617 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilar, M. & Stiles, W.S. (1954). Saturation of the rod mechanism at high levels of stimulation. Optica Acta 1, 59–65.Google Scholar
Aiken, B.E. & Loop, M.S. (1990). Visual reaction time of cats to different spatial frequencies. Visual Neuroscience 5, 557–564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baro, J., Lehmkuhie, S. & Kratz, K. (1990). Electroretinograms and visual evoked potentials in long-term monocularly deprived cats. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 31, 1405–1409.Google Scholar
Baylor, D.A. (1987). Photoreceptor signals and vision. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 28, 34–49.Google ScholarPubMed
Berkley, M.A. (1970). Visual discriminations in the cat. In Animal Psychophysics: The Design and Conduct of Sensory Experiments, (ed.) Stebbins, W.C., pp. 231–247. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, R. (1979). The visual system of the cat. Perception and Psychophysics 26, 423–448.Google Scholar
Blakemore, C. & Vital-Durand, F. (1986). Effects of visual deprivation on the development of the monkey's lateral geniculate nucleus. Journal of Physiology (London) 380, 493–511.Google Scholar
Boothe, R.G., Dobson, V. & Teller, D.Y. (1985). Postnatal development of vision in human and nonhuman primates. Annual Review of Neuroscience 8, 495–545.Google Scholar
Dawis, S.M. (1981). Polynomial expressions of pigment nomograms. Vision Research 21, 1427–1430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harwerth, R.S., Boltz, R.L. & SmithE.L., III. E.L., III. (1980). Psychophysical evidence for sustained and transient channels in the monkey visual system. Vision Research 20, 15–22.Google Scholar
Harwerth, R.S., Crawford, M.L.J., Smith, E.L. & Blotz, R.L. (1981). Behavioral studies of stimulus deprivation amblyopia in monkeys. Vision Research 21, 779–789.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harwerth, R.S., Smith, Ex., Crawford, M.L.T. & Von Noorden, G.K. (1984). Effects of enucleation of the non-deprived eye on stimulus deprivation amblyopia in monkeys. Investigative Ophthalmology & Vision Science 25, 10–18.Google Scholar
Harwerth, R.S., Smith, E.L., Crawford, M.L.T. & Von Noorden, G.K. (1989). The effects of reverse monocular deprivation in monkeys, I. Psychophysical experiments. Experimental Brain Research 74, 327–337.Google Scholar
Harwerth, R.S., Smith, E.L., Duncan, G.C., Crawford, M.L.T. & Von Noorden, G.K. (1986). Multiple sensitive periods in the development of the primate visual system. Science 232, 235–238.Google Scholar
He, Z. & Loop, M.S. (1991). Luminance sensitivity recovers quickly in monocularly deprived cats. Vision Research 31, 1633–1637.Google Scholar
He, Z., Loop, M.S. & Kuyk, T. (1990). The spectral sensitivity of long-term monocularly deprived cats. Investigate Ophthalmology and Vision Science, (Suppl.) 3, 605.Google Scholar
Leporé, F., Cardu, B., Rasmussen, T. & Malmo, R.B. (1975). Rod and cone sensitivity in destriate monkeys. Brain Research 93, 203–221.Google Scholar
Loop, M.S., Millican, C.L. & Thomas, S.R. (1987). Photopic spectral sensitivity of the cat. Journal of Physiology (London) 382, 537–553.Google Scholar
Mariani, A.P. (1982). Biplexiform cells: Ganglion cells of the primate retina that contact photoreceptors. Science 216, 1134–1136.Google Scholar
Mitchell, D.E. (1988). The extent of visual recovery from early monocular or binocular visual deprivation in kittens. Journal of Physiology (London) 395, 639–660.Google Scholar
Mitchell, D.E. & Timney, B. (1984). Postnatal development of function in the mammalian visual system. In Handbook of Physiology, Section I: The Nervous System, Vol. 3, Part I, Sensory Processes ed. Darion Smith, I., pp. 507–555. Bethesda, Maryland: American Physiological Society.Google Scholar
Movshon, J.A. & Van Sluyters, R.C. (1981). Visual neuronal development. Annual Review of Psychology 32, 477–522.Google Scholar
Sherman, S.M. & Spear, P.D. (1982). Organization of visual pathways in normal and visually deprived cats. Physiological Review 62, 738–855.Google Scholar
Smith, E.L., Harwerth, R.S., Duncan, G.C. & Crawford, M.L.T. (1986). A comparison of the spectral sensitivities of monkeys with anisometropic and stimulus deprivation amblyopia. Behavioral Brain Research 22, 13–24.Google Scholar
Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1989). Wavelength sensitivity in blindsight. Nature 342, 916–918.Google Scholar