Abstract
Temporal continuity of visual input plays a fundamental role in the development of the visual system. Thus far, disrupting temporal continuity by strobe-rearing has been studied in only cats and other non-primates, targeting mainly early visual cortex. It remains unclear how strobe-rearing impacts the development of the visual system in primates, particularly beyond early visual areas. Here, we raised 2 infant macaques from birth wearing helmets during the day fitted with optical shutters, which were controlled by a small circuit that opens and closes at 1Hz (200ms open). Using such helmets allowed us to simulate stroboscopic vision, while maintaining a visually complex social environment, including interactions with monkeys housed in the same room and humans. After 1.5 years of strobe-rearing, we conducted resting-state and task-based fMRI experiments under light sedation to study the brain-wide impact of strobe-rearing. Visual motion responsivity was assessed by presenting 20 second “motion” blocks where high-contrast random dot patterns changed their motion direction every second and “stationary” blocks where random dots were flashed on and off at 1Hz frequency. Direction selectivity was assessed using an adaptation paradigm which included blocks of dot motion changing direction every second and blocks where the dot motion direction was constant for the full block duration. Resting-state fMRI indicated that strobe-reared monkeys had a similar retinotopic organization as normal monkeys, and area MT, a region critical for visual motion perception, correlated with striate and extrastriate visual, posterior parietal, and prefrontal cortices including LIP and FEF. Moreover, while strobe-reared monkeys showed motion responsivity across striate and extrastriate visual cortex including MT, no motion direction adaptation was found. Taken together, our results suggest that strobe-rearing does not affect the large-scale organization and functional connectivity of striate and extrastriate visual cortex. However, we find disrupted direction selectivity in MT, corroborating previous findings in cats.