Table 1.

A comparison of characteristics of ocular dominance plasticity in the critical period and adulthood

	Critical period	Adult
Time course	4 d, primarily a rapid loss of responses of the deprived eye	7 d, transient and slight loss of responsiveness of deprived eye, with prominent delayed potentiation of responses of both eyes
Symmetry	Symmetric, similar effects of contralateral-eye and ipsilateral-eye MD	Asymmetric, much larger effect for contralateral-eye MD
	No effect of BD	Clear effect of BD, like that of contralateral-eye MD
Involvement of NMDA receptors	Yes	Yes
Trigger for plasticity	Imbalance of inputs	Changes in cortical activity levels
Possible role of plasticity	Developmental rewiring	Compensatory to maintain activity