Selection of Intrinsic Horizontal Connections in the Visual Cortex by Correlated Neuronal Activity

In the visual cortex of the brain, long-ranging tangentially oriented axon collaterals interconnect regularly spaced clusters of cells. These connections develop after birth and attain their specificity by pruning. To test whether there is selective stabilization of connections between those cells t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1992-01, Vol.255 (5041), p.209-212
Main Authors: Löwel, Siegrid, Singer, Wolf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Animals
Autoradiography
Axonal Transport
Axons
Brain
Carbon Radioisotopes
Cats
Cellular biology
Deoxyglucose - metabolism
Dominance, Cerebral
Evidence
Eyes
Eyes & eyesight
Feedback (Response)
Hemispheres
Injection sites
Kittens
Neural circuitry
Neurons - physiology
Neuroscience
Ocular dominance
Perceptual Impairments
Physiological aspects
Proline - metabolism
Pruning
Statistical Analysis
Strabismus
Strabismus - physiopathology
Tritium
Visual cortex
Visual Cortex - growth & development
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Cortex - physiopathology
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Summary:In the visual cortex of the brain, long-ranging tangentially oriented axon collaterals interconnect regularly spaced clusters of cells. These connections develop after birth and attain their specificity by pruning. To test whether there is selective stabilization of connections between those cells that exhibit correlated activity, kittens were raised with artificially induced strabismus (eye deviation) to eliminate the correlation between signals from the two eyes. In area 17, cell clusters were driven almost exclusively from either the right or the left eye and tangential intracortical fibers preferentially connected cell groups activated by the same eye. Thus, circuit selection depends on visual experience, and the selection criterion is the correlation of activity.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1372754