The role of maturation and visual experience in the development of eye alignment in cats.

In the developing kitten, the alignment of the pupils changes from strongly divergent to almost parallel. The visual axes, however, seem to stay almost parallel throughout this period. The infeluence of early visual experience on this development is examined in the present study. The results suggest that the develpment of eye alignment is not controlled by visual experience, but depends on maturational processes, and that normal visual input serves only to halt these processes at the appropriate time.