The horizontal optokinetic nystagmus (hOKN) in primates is immature at birth. To elucidate the early functional state of the visual pathway for hOKN, retinal slip neurons were recorded in the nucleus of the optic tract and dorsal terminal nucleus (NOT-DTN) of 4 anesthetized infant macaques. These neurons were direction selective for ipsiversive stimulus movement shortly after birth [postnatal day 9 (P9)], although at a lower direction selectivity index (DSI). The DSI in the older infants (P12, P14, P60) was not different from adults. A total of 96% of NOT-DTN neurons in P9, P12, and P14 were binocular, however, significantly more often dominated by the contralateral eye than in adults. Already in the youngest animals, NOT-DTN neurons were well tuned to different stimulus velocities; however, tuning was truncated toward lower stimulus velocities when compared with adults. As early as at P12, electrical stimulation in V1 elicited orthodromic responses in the NOT-DTN. However, the incidence of activated neurons was much lower in infants (40-60% of the tested NOT-DTN neurons) than in adults (97%). Orthodromic latencies from V1 were significantly longer in P12-P14 (x = 12.2 +/- 8.9 ms) than in adults (x = 3.51 +/- 0.81 ms). At the same age, electrical stimulation in motion-sensitive area MT was more efficient in activating NOT-DTN neurons (80% of the tested cells) and yielded shorter latencies than in V1 (x = 7.8 +/- 3.02 ms; adult x = 2.99 +/- 0.85 ms). The differences in discharge rate between neurons in the NOT-DTN contra- and ipsilateral to the stimulated eye are equivalent to the gain asymmetry between monocularly elicited OKN in temporonasal and nasotemporal direction at the various ages.
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