The effect of lid suture upon the growth of cells in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of kittens

It has been shown previously that unilateral suture of the eyelids of young kittens produces a reduced growth of cells in the visually deprived geniculate laminae (Wiesel and Hubel, '63). However, this effect is seen only in the parts of the lateral geniculate nucleus in which a binocular competition is possible. That is, where geniculate cells that receive from the deprived eye are aligned with cells that receive from the normal eye, the growth is affected. Where the geniculate cells that receive from the deprived eye are not aligned with any normally innervated cells, either because the deprived cells would normally receive from the monocular crescent of the visual field or because they lie opposite a part of the nucleus that has suffered degenerative changes, the cell growth is not affected (Guillery and Stelzner, '70; Guillery, '72). The above observations suggest that bilateral lid suture may have relatively little effect upon geniculate cell growth. Eight kittens have been raised with both eyelids sutured and the size of the geniculate cells in layers A and A1 measured. Comparison with measurements obtained from seven normal cats of the same age, shows that binocular lid suture has little, if any, effect upon geniculate cell growth.