Visual discrimination by cats given lesions of visual cortex in one or two stages in infancy or in one stage in adulthood.

Sparing of visual function was studied in cats with bilateral cortical damage to Areas 17 and 18 and most of Area 19. Cats with lesions made in 2 stages, on Postnatal (P) Days 3 and 6, in 1 stage on P6, or in 1 stage in adulthood were compared with sham-operated controls on 10 visual discrimination tasks. On some tasks, both groups of cats that underwent surgery as infants showed considerable sparing of function compared with cats that had surgery as adults; the latter group showed a marked impairment. However, on several of the discriminations, 2-stage lesions permitted almost total sparing of pattern vision, whereas 1-stage lesions made neonatally were almost as debilitating as those incurred in adulthood. The findings suggest that differential behavioral consequences can follow physiological or anatomical changes, or both, that occur within a 4-day neonatal interoperative period.