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. This project reveals 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 study determines 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 wearinggoggles 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. During the reporting period, 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.