Neurones activated through the corpus callosum (CC) in the cat visual
cortex are known to be almost entirely located at the 17/18 border.
They are orientation selective and display receptive fields (RFs)
distributed along the central vertical meridian of the visual field
(“visual midline”). Most of these cells are binocular, and
many of them are activated both from the contralateral eye through the CC,
and from the ipsilateral eye via the direct
retino-geniculo-cortical (GC) pathway. These two pathways do not carry
exactly the same information, leading to interocular disparity between
pairs of RFs along the visual midline. Recently, we have demonstrated that
a few weeks of unilateral paralytic strabismus surgically induced at
adulthood does not alter the cortical distribution of these units but
leads to a loss of their orientation selectivity and an increase of their
RF size, mainly toward the ipsilateral hemifield when transcallosally
activated (Watroba et al., 2001). To investigate
interocular disparity, here we compared these RF changes to those
occurring in the same neurones when activated through the ipsilateral
direct GC route. The 17/18 transition zone and the bordering medial
region within A17 were distinguished, as they display different
interhemispheric connectivity. In these strabismics, some changes were
noticed, but were basically identical in both recording zones. Ocular
dominance was not altered, nor was the spatial distribution of the RFs
with respect to the visual midline, nor the amplitude of position
disparity between pairs of RFs. On the other hand, strabismus induced a
loss of orientation selectivity regardless of whether neurones were
activated directly or through the CC. Both types of RFs also widened, but
in opposite directions with respect to the visual midline. This led to
changes in incidences of the different types of position disparity. The
overlap between pairs of RFs also increased. Based on these differences,
we suggest that the contribution of the CC to binocular vision along the
midline in the adult might be modulated through several intrinsic cortical
mechanisms.