The molecular basis for the development of neural maps

Wei, Y., Tsigankov, D., Koulakov, A. (December 2013) The molecular basis for the development of neural maps. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1305. pp. 44-60. ISSN 0077-8923

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24329485
DOI: 10.1111/nyas.12324

Abstract

Neural development leads to the establishment of precise connectivity in the nervous system. By contrasting the information capacities of cortical connectivity and the genome, we suggest that simplifying rules are necessary in order to create cortical connections from the limited set of instructions contained in the genome. One of these rules may be employed by the visual system, where connections are formed on the basis of the interplay of molecular gradients and activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. We show how a simple model that accounts for such interplay can create both neural topographic maps and more complex patterns of ocular dominance, that is, the segregated binary mixture of projections from two eyes converging in the same visual area. With regard to the ocular dominance patterns, we show that pattern orientation may be instructed by the direction of the gradients of molecular labels. We also show that the periodicity of ocular dominance patterns may result from the interplay of the effects of molecular gradients and correlated neural activity. Overall, we propose that simple mechanisms can account for the formation of apparently complex features of neuronal connections.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: Adaptation, Biological Animals Biological Evolution Cerebral Cortex/*physiology Dominance, Ocular/physiology Humans *Nervous System Physiological Phenomena Synaptic Transmission/*physiology
Subjects: organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > neural networks
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell functions > neural plasticity
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell functions > synaptic plasticity
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Koulakov lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: December 2013
Date Deposited: 03 Mar 2014 21:07
Last Modified: 03 Mar 2014 21:07
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/29547

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