|
|
||||||||
1 From the College of Optometry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
METHODS. Concomitant strabismus was optically simulated in 10 rhesus monkeys using a prism-rearing procedure. The onset of strabismus was kept constant at 4 weeks of age and the duration was maintained for 2, 4, or 8 weeks. In one group of monkeys (infants), the neurophysiological experiments were conducted immediately after the period of rearing with prisms. In another group (adults), after the termination of the prism-rearing regimen at either 8 or 12 weeks of age, the monkeys were kept in a normal housing environment until maturity and behavioral testing was conducted before the recording experiments to determine the animals monocular and binocular visual capacities. To assess the effects of the period of early strabismus on binocular interactions in V1, extracellular single-unit recording methods were used in anesthetized and paralyzed monkeys, and dichoptic sine-wave gratings were used as stimuli.
RESULTS. In all strabismic monkeys, the sensitivity of V1 units to interocular spatial phase disparity (disparity sensitivity) was significantly reduced, and the prevalence of binocular suppression was higher than that found in age-matched control animals. Although 8 weeks of strabismus resulted in a slightly larger loss of disparity sensitivity, the overall effects of the duration of strabismus were surprisingly small in infant strabismic monkeys. After poststrabismus visual experience, a small but significantly higher degree of disparity sensitivity was noted in V1 if prism-rearing was terminated after 4 weeks of strabismus (i.e., at 8 weeks of age), but not after 8 weeks of strabismus (i.e., at 12 weeks of age).
CONCLUSIONS. A brief period (2 weeks) of misalignment after the emergence of stereopsis is sufficient to drastically reduce the functional binocular connections in V1, and longer periods of strabismus result in little additional loss in disparity sensitivity. Clinically, these results suggest that taking corrective measures for infantile esotropes before the known onset age for stereopsis may be important for maintaining better binocular sensory function and better interocular alignment at later stages of development.
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The onset age and the duration of early strabismus are known to affect the severity of binocular response anomalies in the primary visual cortex.6 7 8 We have reported that a brief period (2 weeks) of optical strabismus causes more severe disruptions in V1 development if it occurs after, rather than before, the known onset age (approximately 4 weeks) of stereopsis in monkeys.6 In the current study, we asked whether the duration of optical strabismus influences the development of the binocular response properties of V1 neurons when the onset age is kept constant at an age that corresponds to the normal emergence of stereopsis and whether visual experience after the termination of prism-rearing procedures has any effect on the maintenance of disparity sensitivity in monkey V1.
| Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Subjects
Concomitant strabismus was optically simulated in 10 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) using a prism-rearing procedure. Specifically, infant monkeys were fit with a lightweight helmet that held 15 and 12 diopter (D) prisms oriented base-in in front of the right and left eyes, respectively. The total prismatic deviation exceeded the fusional vergence ranges of normal monkeys. To ensure the absence of fusion during prism-rearing, the prism for the right eye was rotated base-down by 15°. The optical-rearing procedure began at 4 weeks of age, and the duration of prism-rearing was maintained for 2, 4, or 8 weeks (i.e., the age at prism removal was 6, 8, or 12 weeks of age, respectively; Fig. 1
). In one group of monkeys (infants), the recording experiments were conducted immediately at the end of rearing period, and in another group (adults), the monkeys experienced optical strabismus for a duration of either 4 or 8 weeks, and then the recording experiments were conducted after the completion of behavioral testing at approximately 4 years of age.4
The results from the experimental animals were compared with those from age-matched normal control animals.1
|
Recording and Response Analysis Procedures
Tungsten-in-glass microelectrodes were used to isolate the activity from individual cortical neurons. Action potentials were extracellularly recorded and amplified using conventional technology. For each isolated neuron, the receptive fields for both eyes were mapped using handheld stimuli. For the quantitative analyses of monocular tuning and binocular signal interactions, the receptive fields were projected onto the centers of two matched cathode ray tube (CRT) screens (P-31 phosphors). The CRTs had a space average luminance of 56 candelas (cd)/m2. The visual stimuli were drifting sine-wave gratings. The neurons responses were sampled at a rate of 100 Hz (10 msec bin widths) by a laboratory computer and compiled into peristimulus time histograms that were equal in duration to, and synchronized with, the temporal cycle of the sine-wave grating. The amplitudes and phases of the temporal response components in the peristimulus time histograms were determined by Fourier analysis. Responses to drifting sinusoidal gratings (TF, 3.1 Hz, contrast, 35%45%) were measured to determine the orientation tuning, spatial frequency tuning, and direction selectivity of individual units. Cells were classified as simple or complex on the basis of the temporal characteristics of their responses to a drifting sine-wave grating of the optimal spatial frequency and orientation.10
Binocular Response Properties
To determine the strength and the nature of binocular interactions, responses were collected for dichoptic sine-wave gratings of the optimal spatial frequency and orientation as a function of the relative interocular spatial phase disparity of the grating pair (Fig. 2A)
.9
11
12
In addition, monocular stimuli for each eye and one zero-contrast control were included in each stimulus parameter file. For descriptive and analytical purposes, a single cycle of a sine wave was fit to each neurons phase-tuning function. The amplitude of the fitted sine wave was used to calculate the degree of binocular interaction (binocular interaction index [BII] = amplitude of the fitted sine wave/the average response amplitude). Operationally, a unit was considered disparity sensitive if its BII was 0.3 or more.1
9
11
12
|
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Infant Monkeys without Poststrabismus Visual Experience
The sensitivity of individual units to interocular spatial phase disparity (referred to as disparity sensitivity) was dramatically reduced and the prevalence of interocular suppression was higher in all strabismic monkeys compared with normal control monkeys. Figure 2
shows the binocular responses for representative units from a normal and a strabismic monkey. Compared with the unit from the normal 8-week-old monkey (Figs. 2A)
, the unit from the monkey that experienced 4 weeks of strabismus beginning at 4 weeks of age (Fig. 2B)
showed low disparity sensitivity (BII = 0.19) and a relatively high degree of interocular suppression (i.e., mean B/M = 0.55).
Figure 3
compares the degree of disparity sensitivity loss for V1 units in normal monkeys and infant monkeys reared with three different durations of optical strabismus. For our population of V1 units, both the proportion of disparity-sensitive units (BII
0.3) and the mean BIIs were clearly reduced in all strabismic infants compared with normal control monkeys (
2 test, P < 0.01; one-way ANOVA, P < 0.01, respectively). We were surprised that there were no significant differences in the proportion of disparity-sensitive units (Fig. 3A)
or in the mean BIIs (Fig. 3B)
between any of the three groups of prism-reared monkeys (
2 test, P > 0.1; one-way ANOVA, P > 0.05). Thus, if the onset of strabismus was at 4 weeks of age (i.e., the known onset age of stereopsis in monkeys), only 14 days of ocular misalignment was sufficient to cause a major deficit in the disparity sensitivity of V1 neurons.
|
|
2 test, P < 0.01; Fig. 5
). We operationally defined binocularly suppressive units as those having B/M ratios of 0.8 or less (a conservative criterion that is approximately 2 SEs below the mean B/M ratio of 1.0 in normal monkeys). In addition to the higher proportion of suppressive units, neurons having strong binocular facilitation (e.g., B/M
2.0) were very rare in strabismic monkeys (2%4% in strabismic infant monkeys versus 16% in normal 8 week-old monkeys). Consequently, early strabismus also decreased the mean B/M ratios in all treated groups (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.01). However, there was no significant effect of the duration of strabismus on the prevalence or the magnitude of binocular suppression (one-way ANOVA, P > 0.5).
|
Figure 6A shows the average BII for each monkey. If optical strabismus was continued for only 4 weeks between 4 and 8 weeks of age, we found small but significantly higher average BIIs in both adult strabismic monkeys with poststrabismus visual experience than in infants without recovery (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.01). In contrast, if the prisms were removed at 12 weeks of age (i.e., 8 weeks of optical strabismus), subsequent visual experience had no effect on the mean BIIs (one-way ANOVA, P > 0.1). Thus, the average BIIs for adult monkeys that experienced 4 weeks of strabismus were almost twice as high as those for adult monkeys that experienced 8 weeks of misalignment.
|
2 test, P < 0.001) and their mean B/M ratios were lower than those of normal adult monkeys (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.01; Fig. 6B
). The adult monkeys that experienced 4 weeks of strabismus showed a greater proportion of units exhibiting high B/M ratios (e.g., >2.0) than did strabismic infants (Fig. 6B
, middle column). In addition, the mean B/M ratio for the adults that experienced 4 weeks of strabismus was higher than that for the infants that were treated for 4 weeks (t-test, P < 0.05). No comparable effect of poststrabismus visual experience was found if the prism-rearing continued until 12 weeks of age (Fig. 6B
, right column). | Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Comparisons to Previous Findings
In a previous study, we reported that 2 weeks of optical strabismus causes more severe disruptions in the binocular responses of V1 neurons if the misalignment is present after rather than before the onset of stereopsis in monkeys (
4 weeks of age).6
Figure 7
combines some of these previous results with some of the present findings from the infant monkeys that experienced optical strabismus between 4 and 6 weeks of age. In this comparison, the duration of strabismus is constant but the onset age (and thus, the age of prism removal) is different for each group. Regardless of whether we analyzed the proportion of disparity-sensitive units or the mean BIIs, the binocular response deficits were smallest in infant monkeys that experienced misalignment before 4 weeks of age (
2 test and one-way ANOVA, P < 0.01). However, there was no significant difference between the two late-onset groups, both of which had optical strabismus after 4 weeks of age.
|
Comparisons to Human Data
The onset age, the alignment age, and/or the duration of ocular misalignment impact the eventual sensory status of individuals who experience strabismus early in life.13
14
15
16
17
18
With respect to the management of infantile strabismus, it has been a matter of debate as to which of these timing factors has the greatest impact on a patients eventual binocular sensory states. Birch et al.17
and Fawcett et al.18
investigated the effects of onset age, the age of alignment, and the duration of strabismus on the prevalence of stereopsis and stereoacuity in human infants. These investigators found that the age of strabismus onset (which varied between 2 and 6 months, roughly equivalent to 2 and 6 weeks of age in monkeys)3
had no significant effects. However, both the age of alignment and the duration of misalignment affected the prevalence of stereopsis and stereoacuity. Specifically, the shortest duration (less than 2 months) and the earliest alignment ages (between 3 and 5 months of age) were more likely to be associated with the preservation of stereopsis and the achievement of better stereoacuity. However, these investigators isolated duration as the more critical factor. Consequently, they concluded that the primary reason for better stereoacuity outcome in patients who had early surgical alignment is not because the alignment is achieved during the earliest period of visual maturation, but because the duration of misalignment is shorter in those patients.
Although the time course of the breakdown of stereoscopic vision in human infants may be somewhat different from that for disparity detectors in monkey V1,19 20 our present findings are generally consistent with the findings of Birch et al. and Fawcett et al. In our experiments, it was not possible to separate the duration of misalignment from the age of prism removal (alignment age in humans). However, the data in Figure 7 suggest that the onset age and/or the alignment age strongly influence the outcome if the duration is kept constant and relatively short. Again, we cannot separate the effects of onset age from alignment age in Figure 7 , but the results of this study and those of our previous studies1 2 6 unequivocally support the importance of alignment before the known onset age of stereopsis. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that in cases of infantile esotropia, alignment before 4 months of age (roughly 4 weeks in monkeys) would be most effective in increasing the odds of preserving disparity sensitivity and later alignment.
| Footnotes |
|---|
3 Present address: Department of Ophthalmology, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan. ![]()
Supported by National Eye Institute Grants RO1 EY-08128, EY-03611, and Division of Research Resources Grant RR-07146 from the National Institutes of Health.
Submitted for publication August 28, 2001; revised December 6, 2001; accepted December 13, 2001.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Yuzo M. Chino, College of Optometry, University of Houston, 505 J. Davis Armistead Building, Houston, TX 77204-2020; ychino{at}uh.edu
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
L. Tychsen, M. Richards, A. M. F. Wong, J. Demer, D. Bradley, A. Burkhalter, and P. Foeller Decorrelation of Cerebral Visual Inputs as the Sufficient Cause of Infantile Esotropia Amer. Orthoptic Jrnl., January 1, 2008; 58(1): 60 - 69. [Abstract] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. R. Economides, D. L. Adams, C. M. Jocson, and J. C. Horton Ocular Motor Behavior in Macaques With Surgical Exotropia J Neurophysiol, December 1, 2007; 98(6): 3411 - 3422. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C. Nakatsuka, B. Zhang, I. Watanabe, J. Zheng, H. Bi, L. Ganz, E. L. Smith, R. S. Harwerth, and Y. M. Chino Effects of Perceptual Learning on Local Stereopsis and Neuronal Responses of V1 and V2 in Prism-Reared Monkeys J Neurophysiol, April 1, 2007; 97(4): 2612 - 2626. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. Sakai, H. Bi, I. Maruko, B. Zhang, J. Zheng, J. Wensveen, R. S. Harwerth, E. L. Smith III, and Y. M. Chino Cortical Effects of Brief Daily Periods of Unrestricted Vision During Early Monocular Form Deprivation J Neurophysiol, May 1, 2006; 95(5): 2856 - 2865. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. Watanabe, H. Bi, B. Zhang, E. Sakai, T. Mori, R. S. Harwerth, E. L. Smith III, and Y. M. Chino Directional Bias of Neurons in V1 and V2 of Strabismic Monkeys: Temporal-to-Nasal Asymmetry? Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., October 1, 2005; 46(10): 3899 - 3905. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Zhang, H. Bi, E. Sakai, I. Maruko, J. Zheng, E. L. Smith III, and Y. M. Chino Rapid plasticity of binocular connections in developing monkey visual cortex (V1) PNAS, June 21, 2005; 102(25): 9026 - 9031. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. T. Barrett, A. Bradley, and P. V. McGraw Understanding the Neural Basis of Amblyopia Neuroscientist, April 1, 2004; 10(2): 106 - 117. [Abstract] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. Tychsen, A. M. F. Wong, P. Foeller, and D. Bradley Early Versus Delayed Repair of Infantile Strabismus in Macaque Monkeys: II. Effects on Motion Visually Evoked Responses Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., March 1, 2004; 45(3): 821 - 827. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Zhang, K. Matsuura, T. Mori, J. M. Wensveen, R. S. Harwerth, E. L. Smith III, and Y. Chino Binocular Deficits Associated With Early Alternating Monocular Defocus. II. Neurophysiological Observations J Neurophysiol, November 1, 2003; 90(5): 3012 - 3023. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |