Acutely induced shift in ocular dominance during brief monocular exposure: effects of cortical noradrenaline infusion.

Acutely anesthetized and paralysed kittens were monocularly exposed to TV shows for approximately 20 h, throughout which the visual cortex received a direct infusion of (-)-noradrenaline (NA) or (+)-NA. The ocular dominance distribution was found shifted toward the exposed eye in the (-)-NA-infused cortex, but not in control cortex, i.e. the drug-free kitten cortex, the kitten cortex infused with (+)-NA, and the (-)-NA-infused adult cortex. Noise patterns on the same TV screen also failed to induce a shift in the (-)-NA-infused kitten cortex. It is concluded that shift in ocular dominance takes place in kittens, even under general anesthesia and paralysis, when cortical (-)-NA infusion and pattern vision through one eye are combined.