Binocular interaction in the formation of specific intertectal neuronal connexions

Abstract

Abstract The mechanisms concerned in the formation of the ipsilateral visual projection in Xenopus have been investigated by examining the results in the adult of various surgical manoeuvres on the embryonic eye: 1. In animals with one double-nasal compound eye, the ipsilateral projection from the compound eye was normal while that from the normal eye was abnormal but internally organized. 2. In animals with one double-temporal compound eye the ipsilateral projection from both operated and normal eyes was normal. 3. In animals with one rotated eye, the ipsilateral projection from the operated eye was normal while that from the normal eye was rotated. 4. In animals reared with only one eye the ipsilateral projection was abnormal in that it was diffuse. The observations are interpreted as indicating that the formation of the retinotopically organized intertectal projection which forms part of the ipsilateral projection is dependent upon a process by which regions of the two tecta that generally receive similar spatiotemporal patterns of excitation become neurally interconnected.