REORGANIZATION OF CORTICOTECTAL CONNECTIONS

Brain damage in the developing organism often results in less severe long-term dysfunction than ostensibly similar damage suffered in adulthood. The explanation for this observation is as yet unclear. One potentially fruitful approach for studying this phenomenon is to employ so-called 'model systems' in which the anatomical and functional consequences of early brain lesions can be documented. In this article Leo Chalupa and Robert Rhoades describe the effects of lesions of part of the visual cortex on subsequent reorganization of the synaptic connections with the midbrain. They find that the introduction of anatomical compensation does not necessarily lead to functional compensation. © 1979.