[Changes in the cat's visual system following retinal lesions. A functional reorganization in the mature central nervous system (author's transl)].

Layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of mature cats were completely or partially deafferentated by precisely defined photocoagulation of the retina. Single neuron recordings were performed with microelectrodes from an experimentally modified layer and compared with neurons from a normally innervated layer in the same animal. The spontaneous activity of cells after monocular deafferentation was severely reduced in the beginning and increased subsequently without reaching normal values within ten weeks. At this time the pattern of excitation and inhibition after light stimulation of the nondominant unsevered eye had completely changed. Twenty-seven days and later after coagulation of a part of the nasal retina light-excitable cells with displaced receptive fields were found in the LGN in the border region of the partial visual deafferentation. This indicated a lesion-induced lateral expansion of excitation by up to 200 microns within the LGN. Small, round retinal lesions initially caused a complete visual deafferentation of a certain region in the LGN. After 30 days and later visual excitation from the normally innervated surrounding was observed in cells which were not light-excitable during the first days after coagulation. Thus, while the retinal lesion itself did not substantially change, its representation within the LGN was distinctly reduced. The results indicate lesion-induced reorganization in the subcortical visual system of the adult cat. This might enable the system to a certain degree of compensation after loss of visual inputs. The transferability of these results to human pathophysiology has to be critically considered.