Early post‐natal development of neuronal function in the kitten's visual cortex: a laminar analysis.

Albus, K.; Wolf, W.

doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1984.sp015104

Cited by 188 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Physiologically, the percentage of binocularly activated neurones in area 17 decreases from about 79 to 60 % from about 2 weeks of age to adult (LeVay et al 1978). Similarly, Albus & Wolf (1984) report about 74% binocularly activated neurones (mostly from area 17 although they include some area 18 neurones in their study) in kittens of similar age. However, the results from studies confined exclusively to area 18 suggest a different developmental process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The X-cell-dominated geniculostriate pathway (to cortical area 17) has served as a useful system with which to study the processes of cortical development including synaptogenesis (Cragg, 1975), maturation of synaptic function (Tsumoto & Suda, 1982), the parcellation of territory by ingrowing geniculocortical afferents (LeVay, Stryker & Shatz, 1978;Shatz & Luskin, 1986;Stryker & Harris, 1986) and the emergence of receptive field (RF) organization Barlow & Pettigrew, 1971;Blakemore & Van Sluyters, 1975;Buisseret & Imbert, 1976;Bonds, 1979;Derrington & Fuchs, 1981;Albus & Wolf, 1984;reviewed in Fregnac & Imbert, 1984;Braastadt & Heggelund, 1985). Although recent reports have described the postnatal development of receptive field properties of neurones in cortical area 18 (Blakemore & Price, 1987;Milleret, Gary-Bobo & Buisseret, 1988), little is known of the structural development of this cortical area and its major thalamic input.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of Y‐axon innervation of cortical area 18 in the cat.

Friedlander

Martin

1989

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. Geniculocortical Y-axons (n = 38) in the optic radiations of 4-5-week-old kittens (n = 20) and adult cats (n = 18) were studied both physiologically and morphologically. Axons were recorded from intracellularly and subsequently filled ionophoretically with horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The HRP filled the axons' terminal arborizations in visual cortex (particularly well for those innervating area 18). Fourteen axons appeared to be completely filled with HRP (n = 8 in kitten, n = 6 in adult) and served as the basis for the quantitative analysis of the terminal arborizations reported in this study.2. The distribution and correspondence of the axonal boutons to presynaptic elements in cortical layer 4A was analysed at both the light and electron microscope level using computerized three-dimensional analysis and serial section reconstruction, respectively. Compared to adult axons, the boutons of the kitten axons were smaller (x = 0 75 vs. 1-75 ,um length, P < 0-001) and more densely spaced both along individual axon branches (x = 6-60 vs. 11 20 ,sm interbouton interval, P < 0-001) and between neighbouring branches of the same axon (x = 4-7 vs. 6-4 #sm nearest-neighbour distance, P < 0-01).3. Most kitten boutons made a single Gray's type 1 synapse on a cortical neurone, unlike adult boutons which usually contacted two or more postsynaptic targets. Both kitten and adult axons had dendritic spines as their major target. Occasionally, HRP reaction-product was observed in cortical neurones postsynaptic to the labelled geniculocortical axon, which gave some estimate of the number of synaptic contacts between a single geniculocortical axon and target cell (about five).4. The kitten Y-axons innervated the visual cortex in a pattern similar to that of the adult, with the richest terminal branching and bouton density in layer 4A with some additional boutons distributed in layers 3, 4B and 6. The extent of the terminal arborizations primarily in layer 4A (as measured in surface views) of kitten Y-axons in area 18 was significantly less than that of adult Y-axons in area 18 (x = 0.9 mm2 vs. x = 1-2 mm2, P = 0 04).5. We conclude that between 4 and 5 postnatal weeks and 1 year, geniculocortical Y-axons projecting to cortical area 18 undergo four major changes. These include a M. J. FRIEDLANDER AND K. A. C. MARTIN reduction in synaptic bouton density (both in three-dimensional space and along individual branches), a concomitant moderate expansion in the surface area of cortex innervated, an increase in bouton size and an increase in the number of synaptic contacts made by each bouton. A general proportional growth of the individual axons' terminal arborization together with fusion and/or separation of neighbouring boutons is sufficient to explain this development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Y‐axon innervation of cortical area 18 in the cat.

Friedlander

Martin

1989

The Journal of Physiology

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“…3A are shown in Fig. 3 BJ-B3 kittens have reported broader tuning than in the adult (3,4,6,(44)(45)(46)(47)(48).…”

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confidence: 88%

The retinal ganglion cell mosaic defines orientation columns in striate cortex.

Soodak¹

1987

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A computer simulation was used to demonstrate that the tangential organization of orientation columns is a natural consequence of the orderly projection of the mosaic of retinal ganglion cells onto the visual cortex. Parameters of the simulation were taken from published anatomical and electrophysiological data, and the resulting columnar organization of the simulated visual cortex shows many similarities with observations from animals. The model is able to account for a variety of experimental observations, including the presence of orientation columns in visually inexperienced animals.One of the striking features of the cortical representation of the visual field is the grouping of neurons with similar preferred orientations into the orientation columns described by Hubel and Wiesel (1,2). This columnar organization is already present in kittens at the time ofeye opening and must, therefore, be determined by intrinsic developmental processes that are independent of visual experience (3-6). In a previous report, I showed how the orientation tuning of visual cortex neurons could be calculated from the pattern of convergence of on-and off-center afferents (7). Using this calculation procedure, I show here that the tangential organization of the orientation columns is a natural consequence of the orderly projection of the retinal ganglion cell mosaic onto the cortex.Wissle and his collaborators (8, 9) have shown that retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) of the cat are arranged in a lattice-like mosaic with regular cell-to-cell spacings. Similar arrangements were found for both the P (8) and a (9) morphological types, which Boycott and Wassle (10) and Wassle et al. (11) have shown to correspond to the X and Y physiological types (12-15), respectively. For both the X and Y cells, on-and off-center RGCs form their own lattices, and the on and off lattices are superimposed independently of each other (8,9). Since the signals from RGCs are relayed through the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) without substantial modification (16)(17)(18)(19), the RGC mosaic represents the pattern of visual input to the cortex. Thus, as emphasized by Wassle et al. (8), the RGC mosaic serves as an important constraint on the construction of cortical receptive fields. THE SIMULATIONWhat I present here is the result, by computer simulation, of the developmental process whereby the RGC mosaic projects retinotopically by way of the LGN onto the cortex. The simulation begins with two sets of coordinates, corresponding to the retinal positions of the on-and off-center RGCs.The receptive fields of the cortical neurons are then defined as a convergence of RGC inputs, and their responses are calculated using the procedure described in a previous report (7). The positions of the RGCs in the retinal mosaic were measured from figure 9 of Wassle et al. (8) after photographic enlargement and were corrected for tissue shrinkage by the areal shrinkage factor of 0.5 provided by the authors. Other parameters of the simulation were also obtained from exper...

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“…On the basis of results from this present study and from previous work (Blakemore & Van Sluyters, 1975;Bonds, 1979;Albus & Wolf, 1984) it appears that a population of innately determined, clearly orientation-selective cells exists in area 17 in very young normal but visually inexperienced kittens. Blakemore & Van Sluyters (1975) suggested that innate orientation selectivity in area 17 is largely determined by inputs from geniculate X cells.…”

Section: Area 18 In Visually Deprived Catmentioning

confidence: 68%

Effects of dark‐rearing on the development of area 18 of the cat's visual cortex.

Blakemore¹,

Price²

1987

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. We recorded extracellularly from 420 single units in area 18 in visually inexperienced kittens aged 7 days and dark-reared kittens aged between 3 and 12 weeks and from 60 single units in area 17 in dark-reared kittens aged 5 and 11 weeks.2. Visual deprivation generally depressed the maturation of area 18, although some features were affected more than others and certain developmental improvements still occurred. The percentage of visually responsive units in area 18 increased from 400 in 7-day-old kittens to about 75 % in dark-reared animals 10-12 weeks. At each age a proportion of cells was orientation biased (between 15 and 45 %) and these neurones appeared to be arranged in a crude columnar fashion. However, dark-rearing, from birth, prevented the development of a significant proportion of orientation-selective cells in area 18; no more than 5 % of neurones were orientationselective at any age. We found no major bias in the over-all distribution of preferred orientations of cells in area 18 in dark-reared kittens.3. Simple cells, which are found in area 18 even in very young, visually inexperienced kittens, persisted after dark-rearing, although most retained immature properties. Relatively few complex cells were found in area 18 in visually deprived animals.4. The majority of neurones in area 18 of dark-reared kittens were binocularly driven, many equally well by either eye; evidence for regional variation in ocular dominance (indicative of a columnar pattern) was found in these deprived animals.5. A laminar analysis in area 18 showed that percentages of non-oriented and orientation-biased cells changed little, if at all, in lower laminae (IV, V, and VI) but increased substantially in upper layers (above layer IV) in the absence of visual stimulation, over the first 12 post-natal weeks.6. A comparison of the effects of dark-rearing on areas 17 and 18 indicates that the normal development of visual responsiveness and specific receptive field properties is suppressed in both areas during the first 12 post-natal weeks. It is possible that area 17 has a greater degree of orientation selectivity than area 18 in young visually deprived kittens and this may reflect a difference in the type of afferent inputs.

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Early post‐natal development of neuronal function in the kitten's visual cortex: a laminar analysis.

Cited by 188 publications

References 54 publications

Development of Y‐axon innervation of cortical area 18 in the cat.

Development of Y‐axon innervation of cortical area 18 in the cat.

The retinal ganglion cell mosaic defines orientation columns in striate cortex.

Effects of dark‐rearing on the development of area 18 of the cat's visual cortex.

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