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Published October 2, 1980 | public
Journal Article

Retinotectal Plasticity in Xenopus: Anomalous lpsilateral Projection following Late Larval Eye Removal

Abstract

The left eye was removed from Stage 56 Xenopus tadpoles. Two to 9 months after metamorphosis, electrophysiologic analysis showed that the surviving (right) eye mediated a normal visual field projection to the left (contralateral) optic tectum. In addition, a peripheral region of the same retina innervated the entire right (ipsilateral) tectum. Primary evidence that indicates this anomalous ipsilateral projection was due to direct retina-to-tectum innervation comes from singleunit analysis, latency measurements, and tectal lesion studies. Thus, the peripheral retina simultaneously connected in much different patterns to the two optic tecta, solely on the basis of the presence (in the left tectum) or absence (in the right tectum) of central retinal fibers. This documents a role for fiber-fiber interaction (such as repulsion or competition) acting in combination with fiber-tectum interactions in the formation of the retinotectal map.

Additional Information

© 1980 Academic Press, Inc. Received May 14, 1979; accepted January 28, 1980. We thank Dr. M. Duda for providing histologic materials, Ms. Lucinda Hentges for preparing the manuscript, and Ms. Diana Ross for excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (GM07231-04; NS-12606; NS-14807) and the National Science Foundation (BMS-75-18958; PCM-77-26987). Dr. Hunt is a fellow of the Alfred Sloan Foundation.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023