Sizes of neurons in the primate lateral geniculate nucleus during normal development.

Measurements of cell area have been made in the lateral geniculate nuclei (LGNs) of 18 normal rhesus monkeys aged from 8 days to fully adult. There is much less variability between individual animals than had been thought from measurements of undeprived cells in experimental animals following visual deprivation. It is therefore possible to make reliable comparisons of cell size between different animals. There is no change in size of cells in the parvocellular laminae between 8 days of age and adulthood, although cells in the magnocellular laminae grow a little. In the primate, unlike the cat, the period of maximum sensitivity to visual deprivation does not correspond to a period of rapid cell growth in the LGN.