Rapid changes in cerebral blood flow and initial visual experience in the developing chick

Abstract

A single eye of young chicks was sewed shut for various times. Regions contralateral to and primarily or secondarily innervated by the sutured eye had a reduced rate of cerebral blood flow in comparison to the corresponding ipsilateral regions. However, upon reopening the sutured eye after 2 days, these contralateral regions (optic lobes and cerebral hemispheres) exhibited a rapid increase in cerebral blood flow to a level significantly above that in control ipsilateral areas. The duration of this effect was considerably prolonged in chicks that were monocularly sutured immediately after hatching without prior exposure to light. Chicks that had 1 week of normal vision before monocular suture did not show this overcompensatory effect. If the period of monocular suture was extended to 7 days before restoration of vision to the occluded eye, the overcompensatory vascular effect was delayed. The maximal effect was apparent only upon the 1st exposure of an eye to major visual input. A possible relation exists between this rapid increase in regional blood flow and the period when visual imprinting could normally be expected to be maximal.