Activity-Dependent Cortical Target Selection by Thalamic Axons
- Creators
- Catalano, Susan M.
- Shatz, Carla J.
Abstract
Connections in the developing nervous system are thought to be formed initially by an activity-independent process of axon pathfinding and target selection and subsequently refined by neural activity. Blockade of sodium action potentials by intracranial infusion of tetrodotoxin in cats during the early period when axons from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) were in the process of selecting visual cortex as their target altered the pattern and precision of this thalamocortical projection. The majority of LGN neurons, rather than projecting to visual cortex, elaborated a significant projection within the subplate of cortical areas normally bypassed. Those axons that did project to their correct target were topographically disorganized. Thus, neural activity is required for initial targeting decisions made by thalamic axons as they traverse the subplate.
Additional Information
© 1998 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 12 March 1998; accepted 10 June 1998. We thank A. Raymond and D. Escontrias for help with the fetal surgeries. Supported by NIH grant EY02838 (C.J.S.) and National Research Service Award EY06491 (S.M.C.). S.M.C. is an Associate and C.J.S. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 52273
- DOI
- 10.1126/science.281.5376.559
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141202-123859457
- EY02838
- NIH
- EY06491
- NIH
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
- Created
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2014-12-02Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field