Cytochrome oxidase and neurofilament reactivity in monocularly deprived human primary visual cortex.

Previous studies of human primary visual cortex (V1) have demonstrated a significant eye-specific decrease in cytochrome oxidase (CO) staining following monocular enucleation. We have extended these results by examining CO staining and neurofilament labeling in V1 from a patient with long-standing monocular blindness. A pattern of reduced neurofilament reactivity was found to align with pale CO-stained ocular dominance columns. Neurons located within deprived ocular dominance columns were significantly smaller compared with those in nondeprived columns. A spatial analysis of the relationship between CO blobs and ocular dominance columns revealed that both deprived and nondeprived blobs tended to align with the centers of ocular dominance columns.