EXCITATORY BINOCULAR NEURONS ARE LOST FOLLOWING PRISMATIC BINOCULAR DISSOCIATION IN INFANT MONKEYS

Four infant rhesus monkeys had prismatic dissociation of binocular vis ion by viewing the world through prisms. Those monkeys tested previous ly for ability to utilize horizontal disparity cues in detection of dy namic random dot stereograms, were found here to have few excitatory b inocular neurons in visual cortex (V1). Each eye was well represented in the monocular ability to drive cortical neurons, whilst stimulus or ientation tuning appeared normal in the monocular neurons, but somewha t less sensitive in the remaining binocular neurons. Binocular dissoci ation early in life constitutes conditions unfavorable for the mainten ance of neural connections delivering binocular excitation to the visu al cortex.