Get Ophthalmology Form - Collom & Carney Clinic

Ocular dominance columns—regions within layer 4 of V1 in higher mammals that receive input exclusively from one eye or the other via the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the visual thalamus—are paradigmatic of thalamocortical patterns that specify individual cortical areas.

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye preference or eyedness, is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other. It is somewhat analogous to the laterality of right- or left-handedness; however, the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not always match.

Ocular dominance columns are stripes of neurons in the visual cortex of certain mammals (including humans) that respond preferentially to input from one eye or the other. The columns span multiple cortical layers, and are laid out in a striped pattern across the surface of the striate cortex (V1).

The columns form a mosaic of irregular parallel stripes about 500 microns to 1000 microns wide (right eye column plus left eye column measures 1 to 2 mm), oriented at right angles to the boundary of the primary visual cortex.

After ocular dominance columns were discovered in animals, it was naturally of interest to learn whether they also occur in humans. The Glees silver stain revealed a pattern of parallel stripes in normal autopsy specimens, suggesting that they are indeed present in human striate cortex (Hitchcock and Hickey 1980).