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Published March 1980 | public
Journal Article

Retinotectal Specificity: Models and Experiments in Search of a Mapping Function

Abstract

Embryonic development of nerve patterns has fascinated and frustrated neurobiologists for decades. The orderly connections within the central nervous system and between the central nervous system and peripheral end organs are thought to be formed by a number of different means ranging from selective cell death, through timing and mechanical guidance, to chemospecificity. A system that has gained great popularity for the study of topographic connections between sets of neurons is the retinotectal system of lower vertebrates (amphibia and fish). Although this system has hardly been cooperative in yielding conclusive evidence (Horder & Martin 1978, Hunt & Jacobson 1974), its great popularity has led to a mass of experimental data, which, by sheer bulk and ever more refined experimental design, has begun to crystallize into strong support and strong challenge to various proposed ideas for the assembly of connections between the eye and brain.

Additional Information

© 1980 Annual Reviews. We wish to thank Drs. R. A. Cone, M. Steinberg, and R. Meyer for helpful discussions, L. Hentges for expert assistance in assembling the manuscript, K. Conway, M. Duda, and K. Feiock for supplying the chimeric eye reconstruction. Work in the authors' lab supported by grants from NIH (NS12606), NSF (PCM77-26987) to R. K. H., and NIH (GM07231 -04) to S.E.F. R.K.H. is a Sloan Foundation fellow. We thank JHU Dean's fund for supplying funds for computer simulations.

Additional details

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