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Published February 1983 | public
Journal Article

Fiber Optic Mapping of the Xenopus Visual System: Shift in the Retinotectal Projection during Development

Abstract

Two new techniques for assaying the retina to tectum connections in the lower vertebrate visual system are presented. These techniques allow defined regions of the retina to be stimulated, thus circumventing some of the difficulties of the more conventional retinotectal mapping techniques. Applying these techniques to the Xenopus visual system demonstrates that the retina-to-tectum projection shifts during development. The central part of the retinotectal projection moves medially and caudally about 150 μm (10% of the size of the tectum) in two weeks. The presence of such plasticity in a normal developing animal indicates that the plasticity previously observed in experimentally altered animals probably reflects a normal developmental process.

Additional Information

© 1983 Academic Press. Inc. Received 25 June 1982, Accepted 22 September 1982. I thank Drs. M. Bronner-Fraser, D. Petersen, and M-m. Poo, N. O'Rourke, and V. Bayer for critical reading of the manuscript, M. Duda for assistance with the histology. Supported by NIH (NS-14807 awarded to Dr. R. K. Hunt) and NSF (BNS80-23638 to S. E. Fraser). A preliminary report of some of this work was presented to the Physiological Society (Fraser, 1980).

Additional details

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