"Charles D. Nichols" <cn0p+ at andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>such as the visual system, or possible LTP systems. A good test might
>be to find a toxin specific for neurons in the visual cortex, like MDA
>is for the 5-HT system, and admintister it to an animal raised to
>adulthood in the dark. Then during recovery from the toxin, present
>visual stimuli to the animal and compare visual performance to a control
>animal who was not presented with the toxin. (You could even throw in a
>couple trophic factors to stimulate nerve growth!). However, I don't
>know of any visual toxins.
you might be able to use small amounts of 6-OHDA and pretreatment with
nortryptyline to protect norepinephrine neurons. however, this would
not specifically target visual ability... and also its important to note
that you need to have a neurotoxin that destroys only axons and not
cell bodies... i don't know if 6-OHDA does this in small doses... i'll
have to stick my nose back into The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology
and read up on it...
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