Late spreading of excitation in the lateral geniculate nucleus following visual deafferentation is independent of the size of retinal lesions.

Late spreading of excitation occurs in the lateral geniculate nucleus following partial retinal lesions. The extent of spreading remained the same when reducing the size of the lesions to one fifth. This is incompatible with the idea that the spreading could be caused by displacement of normal cells into the deafferented area as a consequence of transneuronal volume reduction.