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Diverse receptive fields in the lateral geniculate nucleus during thalamocortical development

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 608–616 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Most models of thalamocortical development in the visual system assume a homogeneous population of thalamic inputs to the cortex, each with concentric on- or off-center receptive fields. To test this, we made high-resolution spatial maps of receptive fields in the developing ferret lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Developing receptive fields (RFs), had a variety of shapes: some concentric, others elongated (like adult cortical receptive fields) and some with ‘hot spots’ of sensitivity. These receptive fields seemed to arise from convergence of multiple retinal afferents onto LGN neurons. We present a Hebbian model whereby imprecise retinogeniculate connections help refine geniculocortical connections, sharpening both thalamocortical topography and perhaps orientation selectivity.

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Figure 1: Diversity of receptive-field shapes in the developing ferret LGN.
Figure 2: Reproducibility of fine receptive-field structure.
Figure 3: Receptive-field center diameter of LGN cells, plotted as a function of age.
Figure 4: Many developing receptive-field centers are much better represented as two Gaussians than one, whereas adult and ganglion-cell receptive-field centers are adequately represented by one Gaussian.
Figure 5: The relationship between an immature LGN neuron and one of its ganglion-cell inputs.
Figure 6: Receptive-field elongation.
Figure 7: Maturation of geniculate response timing.
Figure 8: The convergence/divergence model of thalamocortical development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants EY10115 and EY12196, The Lefler Fund and the Quan Foundation. W. Martin Usrey and John Reppas provided assistance at all stages of this project. Sergey Yurgenson provided programming assistance, and Elisabeth Serra and Christine Couture, technical assistance. Markus Meister, Kenneth Miller, John Assad, Saeed Tavazoie, Ben Gewurz and Vamsi Mootha gave comments on previous versions of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Sohail F. Tavazoie & R. Clay Reid

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Correspondence to R. Clay Reid.

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Tavazoie, S., Clay Reid, R. Diverse receptive fields in the lateral geniculate nucleus during thalamocortical development. Nat Neurosci 3, 608–616 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/75786

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