The nerve-fiber layer of the primate retina: an autoradiographic study.

The intraretinal path taken by fibers of the arcuate bundle was studied in four Rhesus monkeys. The fibers incorporated radioactivity subsequent to the injection of a small amount of Hproline into the retina. The classical arciform projection was described and it was noted that near the disc, where the nerve-fiber layer contained many unlabeled fibers from the region of the area centralis, the label was uniformly distributed across the thickness of the layer. It is concluded that a vertical topographic organization is lacking in the nerve-fiber layer, i.e., the vertical position of a fiber within this layer, near the disc, bears no relation to the distance of its cell of origin from the disc.