Preservation of vision by the pulvinar following early-life primary visual cortex lesions

Abstract

Background Conscious vision is believed to depend upon an intact primary visual cortex (V1), although injury in early life is often accompanied by the preservation of visual capacity, unlike in adulthood. The middle temporal area (MT) receives input from the retinorecipient koniocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and the more recently described medial subdivision of the inferior pulvinar (PIm) of the thalamus, pathways that potentially contribute to preservation of vision after early damage to V1. Results We examined the potential of these pathways to the long-term preservation of vision after permanent lesions of primate V1 in early and adult life by using a combination..