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S B Tieman

Publications and source records attributed to S B Tieman.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

[14C]2-deoxyglucose demonstration of the organization of ocular dominance in areas 17 and 18 of the normal cat.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the spatial organization of ocular dominance in the visual cortex of the cat. We administered [14C]2-deoxyglucose ([14C]2-DG) to 4 alert, monocularly stimulated cats; one eye had previously been removed from 3 of these cats, and the other cat had received a uniocular injection of tetrodotoxin (TTX). In areas 17 and 18, but not in area 19, we observed alternating regions of heavy and light label, which were clearest in layer IV. Near the representation of the area centralis, especially in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the stimulated eye, the labeled regions formed columns that extended from the pial surface to the white matter. In the representation of peripheral retina, especially in the hemisphere contralateral to the stimulated eye, the pattern was often (but not always) restricted to the middle layers. We conclude that this pattern of label reflects the organization of ocular dominance because: (1) we never observed this pattern in control cats in which both eyes were stimulated or neither eye was stimulated; (2) many characteristics of the pattern are consistent with physiological studies of ocular dominance, and (3) the width and spacing of the alternating label was consistent with the size of the patches of geniculocortical afferents representing the left and right eyes in layer IV of areas 17 and 18.

Animals↗

Gallocyanin-chrome alum counterstaining of Golgi-Kopsch impregnations.

A simple technique is described for counterstaining Golgi-Kopsch impregnations. The sections are first stabilized by the method of Geisert and Updyke and then stained in 0.15% gallocyanin and 5% chromium potassium sulfate for 45 minutes at 55-60 C. The sections are then rinsed, dehydrated to 70% ethanol, cleared in terpineol, mounted and coverslipped. This procedure results in a light to medium blue stain of those cells not impregnated by the silver chromate. The major advantages of this procedure over earlier methods are: (1) the counterstain does not fade and (2) since no differentiation is required, many sections may be stained simultaneously.

Animals↗

Binocular exposure causes suppression of the less experienced eye in cats previously reared with unequal alternating monocular exposure.

In unequal alternating monocular exposure (unequal AME), each eye receives normal patterned visual input but on alternate days and for unequal periods. It has been shown previously that this imbalance in stimulation produces a deficit in the nasal visual field of the less experienced eye (LEE). The effect of subsequent binocular exposure on these visual deficits has now been examined. No evidence of recovery was found. Instead, visual fields remained the same or became smaller. In cats reared with little or no imbalance (8 hr/day vs 7 hr/day or 1 hr/day vs 1 hr), subsequent binocular exposure had no effect on visual fields. In cats reared with a moderate or large imbalance (8 hr/day vs 4 hr/day or 8 hr/day vs 1 hr/day), subsequent binocular exposure led to a suppression of the LEE: when tested binocularly, these cats rarely responded to targets presented in the monocular field of the LEE. The deficits became progressively more severe throughout the period of binocular exposure, until eventually they could be observed even when the LEE was tested monocularly. Most of these cats were clearly esotropic but not all esotropic cats showed suppression. The degree of suppression was correlated with the degree of the imbalance imposed during unequal AME. Our results suggest that when the eyes are misaligned, binocular exposure does not permit recovery of visual function in a disadvantaged eye, but may exacerbate the existing imbalance.

Age Factors↗

Exposure to lines of only one orientation modifies dendritic morphology of cells in the visual cortex of the cat.

To determine whether selective exposure to lines of one orientation modifies the shape of the dendritic fields of cells in visual cortex, we examined the dendritic morphology of neurons in area 17 of five normally reared cats, five cats reared viewing only vertical lines, and three cats reared viewing only horizontal lines. Kittens were placed with their mothers into a totally dark room before their eyes had opened. Beginning at 4 weeks of age, the kittens were brought out for daily periods of exposure wearing masks that limited the vision of each eye to a field of three vertical lines or three horizontal lines. After a minimum of 170 hours of exposure, the animals were killed and blocks of visual cortex were impregnated by the Golgi-Kopsch procedure and cut tangential to the pial surface. Complete neurons from layers III and IV were drawn with the aid of a camera lucida, and the orientations of the dendritic fields wer analyzed using Sholl diagrams. In normal cats, the distributions of the orientations of dendritic fields were uniform, whereas in strip-reared cats, the distributions for the layer III pyramidal cells were shifted. The direction of this shift varied with the experience of the cat: In cats reared viewing only vertical lines, the dendritic fields were oriented orthogonal to the representation of the vertical meridian, and in cats reared viewing only horizontal lines, the fields were oriented parallel to the representation of the vertical meridian. In contrast, the distribution of dentritic orientations for the stellate cells was not affected by stripe-rearing. These results demonstrate a morphological effect of early visual experience that is specific to the particular stimulus presented during rearing and suggest that (1) cortical cells differ in the degree to which they can be modified by such experience, and (2) the dendritic morphology of cortical neurons is related to their preferred orientations.

Animals↗

Visual field deficits in cats reared with unequal alternating monocular exposure.

Thirty-four kittens reared by allowing each eye patterned visual input, but on alternate days and for unequal periods of time (unequal alternating monocular exposure (AME)), were tested for their ability to orient to targets at different positions in visual space. In all unequal AME cats, the visual field of the more experienced eye (MEE) was normal, while that of the less experienced eye (LEE) was restricted. In contrast, in 14 cats reared with equal AME, the fields of both eyes were equal and of normal size. The field deficits observed in the unequal AME cats must therefore be due to the imbalance in stimulation and thus result from a competitive interaction between the afferents from the MEE and the LEE. The field deficits observed in the unequal AME cats differed from those observed in two monocularly deprived (MD) cats. Neither of the MD cats ever responded to targets presented in the region of normal binocular overlap when tested with the deprived eye (DE). The unequal AME cats all showed a nasal field loss in the LEE, but responded normally to targets throughout the temporal portion of the binocular visual field. When the imbalance in stimulation was large (8 to 1) or moderate (8 to 4), there was an abrupt drop in responsiveness (from 100% to zero) as the position of the target was changed from temporal to nasal. When the imbalance was slight (8 to 7), the drop in responsiveness was more gradual and occurred within the nasal field. Our results demonstrate that (1) the paradigm of unequal AME is a useful one for studying binocular competition quantitatively, (2) even the slightest imbalance in stimulation of the two eyes can affect the outcome of the competitive interaction, and (3) the pathways serving binocular vision are not uniformly affected by binocular competition: the ipsilateral pathway is more sensitive than the contralateral pathway.

Animals↗

Unequal alternating monocular deprivation causes asymmetric visual fields in cats.

Kittens were reared so that each eye received normal patterned vision on alternate days. If the eyes received equal periods of stimulation, the visual fields were normal. If one eye received much more experience than the other, the field of the less experienced eye was restricted to the temporal hemifield. This change, which differs from that observed when one or both eyes are deprived continuously of patterned input, suggests that an imbalance in the duration of stimulation can influence the outcome of the normal competitive interaction between pathways from the two eyes and can cause a selective suppression of a portion of the input from the less experienced eye. This suppression may involve the ipsilateral retino-geniculo-cortical pathways or it may involve the entire cortical pathway from the less experienced eye, leaving the colliculus to control responses to visual targets.

Animals↗

Alternating monocular exposure increases the spacing of ocularity domains in area 17 of cats.

Goodhill (1993) has recently suggested that the spacing of ocularity domains in visual cortex is not solely an intrinsic property of cortex, but is determined, at least in part, by the degree of correlation in the activity of the two eyes. In support of this model, Löwel (1994) has shown that strabismus, which decorrelates the activity of the two eyes, increases the spacing of ocular dominance columns in area 17, but not area 18, of the cat. As a further test of Goodhill's model, in this paper we examine the effects of another rearing procedure that decorrelates the activity of the two eyes, namely alternating monocular exposure (AME). Cats were reared either normally (9 cats) or with AME (21 cats). We labeled their ocularity domains by one of three methods: ocular dominance columns by 2-deoxyglucose (14 cats), and ocular dominance patches by transneuronal transport (14 cats), or by injections of tracer into single layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN; 2 cats). The spacing of ocular dominance was 11% greater in the AME cats than in the normal cats (0.976 vs. 0.877 mm). These results are similar to those previously reported for strabismic cats, although the effect is less striking. We thus confirm that decorrelating the activity of the two eyes increases the spacing of cortical ocularity domains. Our results further suggest that the degree of decorrelation affects the extent of that increase.

Animals↗