Joe Shi Cheng1,2, Kevin C. Chan1,2,
Iris Y. Zhou1,2, Matthew M. Cheung1,2, Condon Lau1,2,
Ed X. Wu1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical
Imaging & Signal Processing, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR,
China, People's Republic of; 2Department of Electrial &
Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China,
People's Republic of
Environmental inputs play a significant role in visual system development. However, current studies on the effects of visual input deprivation (dark-rearing) mainly use histological, electrophysiological, and optical imaging techniques. The result of this study demonstrated for the first time an in vivo approach for simultaneously assessing the functional developmental changes in rat cortical and subcortical visual system, and found that the visual cortexs BOLD response is reduced by dark-rearing (p<0.05) while that of the subcortical visual nuclei (superior colliculus and lateral geniculate nucleus ) are less affected.