EARLY FUNCTIONAL & STRUCTURAL REPAIR IN MACAQUE STRABISMUS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The long term goal of this research is to reveal the neural mechanisms that explain each of the behavioral deficits of infantile strabismus (eye misalignment), and the time in development at which they occur. The specific goal of the project is to determine if eye realignment early in the critical period can repair the behavioral and structural deficits of the visual cortex that result from infantile strabismus. Newborn macaques are reared wearing Dr. Bradley's goggles that were designed for young monkeys, and which are fitted with prism lenses to induce optical strabismus. The strabismus is "repaired" at one of three postnatal ages: 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months; corresponding to "very early" (humans: 3 months of age), "average" (humans: 12 months of age), and "late" (humans: 2 years of age) strabismus surgery in children. In this preparation, repair of strabismus consists of the simple act of the removal of the prism goggles. This year we varied the age of onset, either birth, 3 weeks, or 6 weeks, in order to determine whether the results obtained were due to duration of prism rearing or age at correction. The specific hypotheses generated for this project have in common the prediction that the earlier the realignment of the eyes, the greater the recovery of visual function.