Neurophysiological mechanisms of recovery from visual cortex damage in cats: Properties of lateral suprasylvian visual area neurons following behavioral recovery
Neurophysiological mechanisms of recovery from visual cortex damage in cats: Properties of lateral suprasylvian visual area neurons following behavioral recovery
复制标题
猫视觉皮层损伤恢复的神经生理机制：行为恢复后外侧外侧裂上视觉区神经元的特性
作者：
P. D. Spear;T. Baumann
猫的视觉皮层17、18和19区的损伤会导致形式和模式辨别能力的严重和长期的缺陷。然而，经过广泛的再训练，动物能够恢复辨别形式和模式刺激的能力。该实验室最近的行为实验表明，大脑皮层附近的一个区域，即侧庇护上视觉区（LS区），在这种恢复中起着重要作用（Wood et al., 1974; Baumann and Spear, 1977b）。本实验通过对长期视觉皮层损伤后恢复的猫LS区的单个神经元的记录，探讨了恢复的潜在神经生理学机制。5只成年猫接受了双侧17区、18区和19区切除。然后训练他们在两种选择的亮度、形状和图案上辨别标准。在视觉皮层损伤后3 ~ 7个月，在行为训练后进行LS区神经元的记录。将这些神经元的特性与正常猫（Spear and Baumann, 1975）以及急性或短期视觉皮层损伤且没有行为恢复的猫（Spear and Baumann, 1979）的LS区域神经元进行比较。结果表明，急性视觉皮层损伤引起的与正常相比的所有变化在行为恢复后也存在。此外，急性视觉皮层损伤后LS区神经元的所有反应特性在行为恢复后都以相似的形式存在。没有证据表明左脑区在行为恢复中有任何功能重组。这些结果表明，功能重组在成年猫视觉皮层损伤的恢复中几乎没有作用。相反，形状和图案识别能力的恢复似乎是基于视觉皮层损伤后LS区残留的神经过程的功能。
SummaryDamage to visual cortical areas 17, 18, and 19 in the cat produces severe and long-lasting deficits in performance of form and pattern discriminations. However, with extensive retraining the animals are able to recover their ability to discriminate form and pattern stimuli. Recent behavioral experiments from this laboratory have shown that a nearby region of cortex, the lateral suprasylvian visual area (LS area), plays an important role in this recovery (Wood et al., 1974; Baumann and Spear, 1977b). The present experiment investigated the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of the recovery by recording from single neurons in the LS area of cats which had recovered from long-term visual cortex damage.Five adult cats received bilateral removal of areas 17, 18, and 19. They were then trained to criterion on two-choice brightness, form, and pattern discriminations. Recording from LS area neurons was carried out after the behavioral training, from 3 to 7 months after the visual cortex lesions. The properties of these neurons were compared to those of LS area neurons in normal cats (Spear and Baumann, 1975) and in cats with acute or short-term visual cortex damage and no behavioral recovery (Spear and Baumann, 1979). The results showed that all of the changes from normal which were produced by acute visual cortex damage were also present after the behavioral recovery. Moreover, all of the response properties of LS area neurons which remain after acute visual cortex damage were present in similar form after the behavioral recovery. There was no evidence for any functional reorganization in the LS area concomitant with its role in the behavioral recovery.These results suggest that functional reorganization plays little or no role in recovery from visual cortex damage in adult cats. Rather, the recovery of form and pattern discrimination ability appears to be based upon the functioning of residual neural processes in the LS area which remain after the visual cortex damage.