DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL FUNCTION

这个项目的目标集中在猕猴的空间视觉发展的特征。 这些猴子形成了一种动物模型，可用于测试关于视力发展及其被弱视破坏的神经基础的假设，弱视通常被定义为由于发育期间异常的视觉条件而导致的视力丧失。 我们一直在研究正常幼猴和实验诱导弱视的猴子的视觉发育，以评估有关发育的神经限制和弱视引起的破坏的理论。 我们先前分析了斜视和屈光参差的猴子在各种空间任务上的表现，以确定其缺陷与对比敏感度损失模式相关的程度。 我们发现，在大多数情况下，对比敏感度丧失的模式可以解释弱视患者空间精度的丧失，并且缺陷的模式表明皮层基质。 本研究记录了弱视猴初级视皮层（V1）神经元的电生理特性，试图探讨弱视缺陷的神经基础。 我们在斜视和屈光参差的猴子身上发现了不同的结果模式。 斜视的猴子有相当平衡的代表性的两只眼睛在V1，而屈光参差的猴子有一个明显的偏见对弱视眼。 对于这两组，弱视眼驱动的神经元的空间和对比度响应特性与非弱视眼驱动的神经元相比较差。

The goals of this project center on characterization of the development of spatial vision in macaque monkeys. These monkeys form an animal model that can be used for testing hypotheses about the neural basis for the development of vision and its disruption by amblyopia, which is generally defined as a loss of vision due to abnormal visual conditions during development. We have been studying visual development in normal infant monkeys and in monkeys that have experimentally induced amblyopia in order to evaluate theories about the neural limitations on development and the disruption caused by amblyopia. We previously analyzed the performance of strabismic and anisometropic monkeys on various spatial tasks to establish the extent to which their deficits were related to the pattern of contrast sensitivity losses. We have found that in most cases, the pattern of contrast sensitivity loss can account for the loss of spatial precision in amblyopes, and that the pattern of deficits suggests a cortical substrate. We have recorded electrophysiological properties of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) of amblyopic monkeys, to try to identify the neural basis for the amblyopic deficits. We have found a different pattern of results from strabismic and anisometropic monkeys. The strabismic monkeys have fairly balanced representation of the two eyes in V1 whereas the anisometropic monkeys have a distinct bias against the amblyopic eye. For both groups, the spatial and contrast response properties of the neurons driven by the amblyopic eyes were poor compared with those driven by the non-amblyopic eye.