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Normal visual fields measured with Octopus-Program G1. II. Global visual field indices.

To complement results from individual test locations, clinicians also evaluate indices, as they give a succinct overview of the visual field. This, however, requires exact knowledge of their variability. The present study was designed to determine normal interindividual variability of global visual field indices and incorporates a data base of a multicenter study performed with Octopus 201 perimeters using Program G1. The 824 fields thus obtained included 139 fields of 139 healthy volunteers who had undergone two previous visual fields and completed all three phases of program G1. The index mean sensitivity showed a significant and linear decrease with increasing age, 0.064 dB/year of life. The indices loss variance, corrected loss variance, and short-term fluctuation did not correlate significantly with age. Percentiles are given for these visual field indices. While within the limits of normal values provided by the manufacturer for these indices, these results suggest that visual fields with "borderline" values require further clinical investigation in reliable, experienced subjects. The results may help clinicians to better evaluate global visual field indices and, therefore, to detect loss of visual function earlier.

Adult↗

Development of the kitten visual cortex depends on the relationship between the plane of eye movements and visual inputs.

1. Previous experiments have demonstrated that eye movements, acting through the extraocular muscle (EOM) proprioceptive afferents, are necessary for the development of orientation selectivity in the cells of the kitten visual cortex. New experiments were carried out to study the effect of the plane of eye movements on the preferred orientation acquired by the visual cortical cells. 2. Dark-reared (DR) kittens were operated on at 5-6 weeks of age. In the first series of experiments, 4 out of the 6 EOMs were removed bilaterally in such a way that both eyes could only move in a single plane, either vertical or horizontal. In the second series of experiments, the same operation was performed on one eye which was also sutured shut and, on the other side, the EOM were deafferented by intracranial section of the ophthalmic branch of Vth nerve and the eye left open. 3. 1-4 days after surgery the kittens were given 6 h of visual experience and 12 h later were prepared for visual cell recording in Area 17. 4. In kittens of the first series: orientation selectivity developed in the majority (60-65%) of visual cells, most of which encoded horizontal orientations when the eyes had moved in the vertical plane and vertical orientations when the eyes had moved in the horizontal plane. These results show that the plane of eye movements during early visual experience influences the distribution of preferred orientations with an orthogonal relation. Ocular dominance histograms were "strabismic like". 5. In kittens of the second series: orientation selectivity developed in 40-50% of cells, about half of which were tuned for the orientation orthogonal to the direction of movement of the occluded eye, as in experiment I. The seeing, deafferented eye, presumably would have sent normal visual inputs centrally, corresponding to displacements on the retina in every direction since the ocular motility of that eye had not been disturbed. However, proprioceptive information about its movements was suppressed. As only some of the EOMs of the occluded eye were still present and connected, the conclusion is that the observed influence of the plane of eye movements acts through the proprioceptive afferents.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

Hemiretinal differences in the effect of a rotating visual background on the subjective visual vertical.

Sixteen normal subjects were tested for their accuracy in judging the verticality of a visual edge before or during exposure to a moving visual background. All subjects showed a counter-rotation of the subjective visual vertical as a consequence of movement of the visual background. The effect was stronger for binocular than monocular viewing and for nasal than temporal hemiretina stimulation. No hemispheric asymmetries were observed. These results show a predominance of the crossed visual pathways originating from the nasal hemiretinae in a visual effect presumably involving a visual-vestibular interaction.

Adolescent↗

Visual imagery and visual semantics in the cerebral hemispheres in schizophrenia.

Divided visual field tasks were given to normal subjects, and patients with schizophrenia and affective disorder, to investigate hemisphere differences in the visual processing of standardised pictorial stimuli. There were two conditions: in the first, subjects were asked to decide whether a common entity represented by a picture was living or non-living, a task involving a categorical judgement based on semantic information; a left hemisphere task. In the second condition, subjects judged whether these depictions represented entities which were bigger or smaller than a cat; a right hemisphere task requiring visual imagery to compare spatial dimensions. It was found that the patient groups, while showing slower reaction time (RT) overall, both displayed a right hemisphere (RH) advantage on the imagery task. Furthermore, the schizophrenics' RHs showed the normal relationship between closeness of size comparison and RT, additional evidence that the visual imagery mechanism is intact. However, these patients failed to show the expected left hemisphere advantage on the visual-semantic task. There was a suggestion that performance on the semantic task was related to the experience of vivid imagery in normals and visual hallucinations in the schizophrenics. The possible contribution of hemispheric imbalance in the production of visual hallucinations from a disordered semantic system is discussed.

Adult↗

Visual areas and spatial summation in human visual cortex.

Functional MRI measurements can securely partition the human posterior occipital lobe into retinotopically organized visual areas (V1, V2 and V3) with experiments that last only 30 min. Methods for identifying functional areas in the dorsal and ventral aspect of the human occipital cortex, however, have not achieved this level of precision; in fact, different laboratories have produced inconsistent reports concerning the visual areas in dorsal and ventral occipital lobe. We report four findings concerning the visual representation in dorsal regions of occipital cortex. First, cortex near area V3A contains a central field representation that is distinct from the foveal representation at the confluence of areas V1, V2 and V3. Second, adjacent to V3A there is a second visual area, V3B, which represents both the upper and lower quadrants. The central representation in V3B appears to merge with that of V3A, much as the central representations of V1/2/3 come together on the lateral margin of the posterior pole. Third, there is yet another dorsal representation of the central visual field. This representation falls in area V7, which includes a representation of both the upper and lower quadrants of the visual field. Fourth, based on visual field and spatial summation measurements, it appears that the receptive field properties of neurons in area V7 differ from those in areas V3A and V3B.

Adult↗

Visual recovery after monocular deprivation is driven by absolute, rather than relative, visually evoked activity levels.

It is now well established that the anatomical and functional development of the central visual pathways of a number of higher mammalian species is activity-dependent [1-3]. This dependence was revealed by the functional effects of an early period of monocular deprivation, where one eye of a young animal was deprived for a time of patterned visual input. Subsequently, most cells in the visual cortex (area 17) could be excited only by visual stimuli delivered to the non deprived eye [4-6] and the animal appeared blind through the deprived eye [7,8]. These effects have been attributed to a competitive activity-dependent mechanism in development, whereby the two eyes compete for control of cortical cells [9,10]. There are, however, suggestions that the substantial recovery that can occur after monocular deprivation may be mediated by a different mechanism. Here, insight into the nature of this mechanism has been provided by monitoring the speed of changes in the vision of the deprived eye of a kitten after 6 days of monocular deprivation. Although both eyes were open during the recovery period, the kitten was able to see with its deprived eye only 2 hours after visual input was restored to this eye. The visual acuity of this eye improved rapidly in the first 24 hours and continued in an orderly way for 6 weeks. In contrast to the effects during monocular deprivation, which depend upon a competitive activity-dependent process, we propose that the events that follow deprivation rely on a mechanism driven by the absolute level of visually evoked activity through the formerly deprived eye.

Animals↗

Effects of auditory and visual interference on auditory-visual delayed matching to sample in monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).

Two monkeys were trained on an auditory-visual (AV) delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) task with auditory cues serving as sample stimuli and visual cues serving as comparison stimuli. To determine whether the monkeys were remembering auditory or visual information during the delay period, auditory and visual interference were presented following the sample stimulus. Auditory interference had little effect on AV DMS performance. In contrast, visual interference severely impaired AV DMS performance, indicating that the monkeys were remembering visual information during the delay period. This finding may reflect a predisposition of monkeys toward remembering information via their dominant visual modality.

Animals↗

Visual input evokes transient and strong shunting inhibition in visual cortical neurons.

The function and nature of inhibition of neurons in the visual cortex have been the focus of both experimental and theoretical investigations. There are two ways in which inhibition can suppress synaptic excitation. In hyperpolarizing inhibition, negative and positive currents sum linearly to produce a net change in membrane potential. In contrast, shunting inhibition acts nonlinearly by causing an increase in membrane conductance; this divides the amplitude of the excitatory response. Visually evoked changes in membrane conductance have been reported to be nonsignificant or weak, supporting the hyperpolarization mode of inhibition. Here we present a new approach to studying inhibition that is based on in vivo whole-cell voltage clamping. This technique allows the continuous measurement of conductance dynamics during visual activation. We show, in neurons of cat primary visual cortex, that the response to optimally orientated flashed bars can increase the somatic input conductance to more than three times that of the resting state. The short latency of the visually evoked peak of conductance, and its apparent reversal potential suggest a dominant contribution from gamma-aminobutyric acid ((GABA)A) receptor-mediated synapses. We propose that nonlinear shunting inhibition may act during the initial stage of visual cortical processing, setting the balance between opponent 'On' and 'Off' responses in different locations of the visual receptive field.

Animals↗

Enhanced interictal responsiveness of the migraineous visual cortex to incongruent bar stimulation: a functional MRI visual activation study.

Since visual aura is usually described as expanding zigzag lines, neurones involved with the perception of line orientation may initiate this phenomenon. A visual incongruent line stimulation protocol was developed to obtain functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) interictally in 5 female migraine patients with typical fortification spectra and in 5 normal matched controls. Activation in the visual cortex was present contralateral to the side of stimulation in 4 of 5 patients, notably in the extrastriate visual cortex. In 4 of 5 controls activation was observed in the medial and anterior orbitofrontal cortex. In one of them additional activation at the right nucleus accumbens/ventral striatum and right ventral pallidum was present. In the remaining control subject activation was present in the left primary visual cortex. The enhanced interictal reactivity of the visual cortex in migraineurs supports the hypothesis of abnormal cortical excitability as an important pathophysiological mechanism in migraine aura, though the role of specific regions of the visual cortex remains to be explored.

Adult↗

Visual acuity and visual field development after cryocoagulation in infants with retinopathy of prematurity.

Visual development was studied in 10 very-low-birth-weight infants (less than 1500 g) with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) stage 3+ who had been treated with cryocoagulation in both eyes. Binocular visual acuity (acuity cards method) and binocular visual fields (kinetic perimetry) were assessed repeatedly in the first year of life. At 12 months corrected age, visual acuity was normal in seven and impaired in three infants, who appeared to be severely myopic. Normal visual fields were found in eight infants at this age. The results indicate that cryotherapy in cases of ROP stage 3+ does not interfere with visual acuity development. The effect on visual field development needs further investigation.

Cryosurgery↗

Constructional dyspraxia in preterm diplegia: isolation from visual and visual perceptual impairments.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate ophthalmological profiles, visual perception and constructional function in preterm children with spastic diplegia (SD) and to clarify their neuropsychological deficits in comparison with a control group. METHODS: Thirty-five SD and 34 control children were investigated for visual acuity, eye position, stereoacuity, depth perception, visual perception, visuo-spatial construction and constructional praxis. Each of the results was compared among the four groups as SD with and without strabismus, and control with and without strabismus. RESULTS: Strabismic SD showed worse visual acuity, worse stereoacuity and worse depth perception than the other groups. Constructional dyspraxia was detected in 94.1% of SD either with or without strabismus, while it was rare in the control group. There was no significant contribution of visual acuity, eye position, stereoacuity or depth perception to constructional dyspraxia by stepwise multiple linear regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Strabismic preterm SD children are at high risk for visual dysfunction. Constructional dyspraxia was frequently found in SD children and may be a dysfunction isolated from ophthalmological and visual perceptual dysfunctions.

Adolescent↗

Visual behaviours of neurologically impaired children with cerebral visual impairment: an ethological study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Visual functions of neurologically impaired children with permanent cerebral visual impairment (CVI) can be difficult to determine. This study investigated the behavioural profile of CVI children by means of ethological observations in order to gain a better understanding of their visual functions. METHODS: Video registrations of nine subjects who were unable to undergo more orthodox methods of visual function testing were observed and analysed by an ethologist. RESULTS: A series of behaviours (direct signs) and supportive or confirming behavioural elements (indirect signs) indicating some visual perception in the children were found. CONCLUSION: Detailed ethological observations of visual behaviour were shown to be useful for analysing visual functions of children with permanent CVI.

Blinking↗

Functional monitoring for visual pathway using real-time visual evoked potentials and optic-radiation tractography.

OBJECTIVE: It has been difficult to obtain anatomic and functional information about the visual pathway during neurosurgical operations. The aim of this study was to combine the information of the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and the anatomic navigation of the optic radiation by diffusion tensor imaging-based tractography for functional monitoring of the visual pathway. METHODS: The subjects were two patients with brain lesions adjacent to the visual pathway. Diffusion tensor imaging-based tractography of the optic radiation was performed by selecting appropriate regions of interest and by fractional anisotropy. During surgery, cortical VEPs were recorded continuously under general anesthesia with sevoflurane. In Patient 2, the results of optic radiation tractography were imported to a neuronavigation system to better understand the spatial relationships between the lesions and the visual pathway (functional neuronavigation). RESULTS: In Patient 1, the lesion did not seem to be attached to the optic radiation, and VEP profiles remained stable during resection. In Patient 2, who had a lesion adjacent to the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, VEPs suddenly diminished when resection reached the optic radiation as illustrated on the neuronavigation system. As a result, complete left hemianopia developed after surgery in Patient 2. CONCLUSION: We confirmed functional correlations of the results of diffusion tensor imaging-based tractography by monitoring intraoperative VEPs. The combination of continuous VEP and optic-radiation tractography is reliable to monitor the visual function and is helpful in performing neurosurgical planning near the visual pathway.

Adult↗

Visual deprivation reactivates rapid ocular dominance plasticity in adult visual cortex.

Brief monocular deprivation (< or =3 d) induces a rapid shift in the ocular dominance of binocular neurons in the juvenile rodent visual cortex but is ineffective in adults. Here, we report that persistent, rapid, juvenile-like ocular dominance plasticity can be reactivated in adult rodent visual cortex when monocular deprivation is preceded by visual deprivation. Ocular dominance shifts in visually deprived adults are caused by a rapid depression of the response to stimulation of the deprived eye, previously only reported in juveniles, and a simultaneous potentiation of the response to stimulation of the nondeprived eye. The enhanced ocular dominance plasticity induced by visual deprivation persists for days, even if binocular vision precedes monocular deprivation. Visual deprivation also induces a significant decrease in the level of GABAA receptors relative to AMPA receptors and a return to the juvenile form of NMDA receptors in the visual cortex, two molecular changes that we propose enable the persistent reactivation of rapid ocular dominance plasticity.

Age Factors↗

Effect of static visual acuity on dynamic visual acuity: a pilot study.

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate whether dynamic visual acuity changes with or without refractive correction. 42 healthy enrolled subjects with normal vision were divided into two age-matched groups. In Group A, dynamic visual acuity was measured first with the refractive error fully corrected and then without. In Group B, dynamic visual acuity measurements were taken in the reverse order of that performed by Group A. The measurements were binocularly performed five times using free-head viewing after dynamic visual acuity values were stable. Significant changes in dynamic visual acuity (static visual acuity 20/20 vs 12/20) were observed in both Group A (171.6 +/- 36.0 deg./sec. vs 151.8 +/- 39.6 deg./sec., Wilcoxon test, p < .001) and Group B (169.8 +/- 30.0 deg./sec. vs 151.2 +/- 36.0 deg./sec., Wilcoxon test, p < .001). The interaction was significant (F1.20 = 8.12, p = .009). These results indicated that refractive correction affected dynamic visual acuity.

Adult↗

Visual hand display (VHD) as an introductory procedure for measuring vision in infants and young children with visual impairment.

We developed the Visual Hand Display (VHD) to measure vision in visually impaired infants and young children. The VHD is a circular fabric mitten, which is held easily by inserting the hand between the two surfaces. Black-and-white stripes are attached to one surface, 25, 15, 10, 4, and 2 mm per stripe. The VHD acuity is determined by the shortest test distance and the smallest stripes that the patient can detect. The VHD acuities were compared with preferential looking (PL) staircase acuities in 130 patients (53 males, 77 females; age range, 2 to 13 years; median, 21.0 months). Of these, 107 (82.3%) had various degrees of retinopathy of prematurity. The correlation between the VHD and the PL acuities was high (R2 = 0.849). PL acuities were better than the VHD acuities in 98/130 patients (75.4%), with an average difference of 0.51 (SD = 0.70) octave. The visual acuity differences were more pronounced in subjects with slight visual impairment and much less in subjects with severe visual impairment. The VHD seems to be an effective introductory method to evaluate visual acuity in severely visually impaired infants and young children. This method also would be effective with severely mentally and physically disabled patients who cannot undergo PL testing.

Adolescent↗

The effect of visual experience on development of NMDA receptor synaptic transmission in kitten visual cortex.

We have studied the effect of dark rearing on the development of excitatory amino acid transmission in 6-week-old kittens. In normal kittens, the NMDA component of the visual response decreases between 3 and 6 weeks of age for cells located in layers IV, V, and VI (Fox et al., 1991). Dark rearing to 6 weeks of age prevents this decrease. Subsequent exposure to light allows the decrease to proceed. Ten days in the light after 6 weeks in the dark was sufficient to decrease the NMDA component of the visual response to the same levels seen in light-reared animals of the same age. Comparison of the effect of the non-NMDA antagonist 6-cyano-7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione with the NMDA antagonist aminophosphonovalerate showed that the changes were due to the relative contributions of NMDA and non-NMDA receptors to the visual response rather than the overall contribution of glutamate receptors. We also studied the receptive field properties of the cells in the various groups of kittens. Cells given 4 d in the light after 6 weeks in the dark showed increased direction selectivity but little change in response firing rate. After 10 d in the light, visual responses did show some recovery toward adult values, but neither average firing rates nor the proportion of direction-selective cells reached the levels found in normal 6-week-old animals, contrary to the suggestion that a short period in the light can reverse the effect of dark rearing completely. These results show that the decrease in the NMDA component of the visual response seen during normal development of the cortex is caused by visual experience. Changes in NMDA receptors and developmental events such as geniculocortical afferent segregation and acquisition of orientation tuning covary as a function of visual experience rather than age, strongly suggesting that NMDA receptors are involved in experience-dependent developmental processes.

2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate↗

[Changes of visual field and visual evoked potential in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after radiotherapy].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Radiotherapy is the main treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The incidence of radiation-induced complications, especially radiation optic neuropathy (RON), increases along with prolonging survival time of the patients. This study was to investigate RON in NPC patients after irradiation by visual field and visual evoked potential (VEP) tests. METHODS: A total of 28 NPC patients, who underwent conventional external-beam irradiation, received visual field and VEP tests before irradiation, at the end of irradiation, and 5 years after irradiation. RESULTS: Thirty-four (60.7%) eyes in 21 patients developed pathological visual field; 15 (44.1%) of these 34 eyes occurred within 10-24 months after irradiation. Of the 34 eyes, 8 showed concentric visual field constriction; 6 showed bitemporal hemianopia; 8 showed local photosensitivity descend; 10 showed central or cecocentral scotoma; 2 showed scotoma enlargement. Forty-four (78.6%) eyes in 26 patients appeared VEP abnormity; 24 (54.5%) of these 44 eyes occurred within 14 months after irradiation. In small, medium, and large elements, VEP latencies were significantly longer within 1 year after irradiation than pre-irradiation (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P=0.001); VEP amplitudes were lower within 1 year after irradiation than pre-irradiation without significant difference (P=0.249, P=0.940, and P=0.450). One year after treatment, VEP latency delay maintained in each element (P=0.004, P < 0.001, P < 0.001); VEP amplitudes were decreased (P=0.002, P=0.189, P < 0.001). The incidence of pathologic visual field was significantly lower in patients received irradiation of < or =70 Gy than in patients received irradiation of > 70 Gy (50.0% vs. 77.3%, P=0.041). CONCLUSIONS: RON correlates to total irradiation dose. Pathologic visual field may indicate the position of RON.

Adult↗