EFFECTS OF PERCEPTUAL ISOLATION ON THE CNS

Abstract

The hypothesis that the mechanism underlying the effects of perceptual isolation is the sensitization of the nervous system by “functional" deafferentation was tested by recording evoked potentials from the optic lobe of the pigeon before and after one eye had undergone pattern deprivation. It was found that before isolation, the second peak of the evoked potential was reduced by background illumination, but after Isolation, it was not. There was no clear indication of change in the absolute amplitudes of the potentials after isolation. These results suggest that an interpretation of the effects of isolation in terms of denervation supersensitivity is oversimplified. A second finding was that in the normal anesthetized bird, background illumination potentiated the phatically evoked potential.'\