The role of retinal waves and synaptic normalization in retinogeniculate development

Abstract

The prenatal development of the cat retinogeniculate pathway is thought to involve activity–dependent mechanisms driven by spontaneous waves of retinal activity. The role of these waves upon the segregation of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) into two eye–specific layers and the development of retinotopic mappings have previously been investigated in a computer model. Using this model, we examine three aspects of retinogeniculate development. First, the mapping of visual space across the whole network into projection columns is shown to be similar to the mapping found in the cat. Second, the simplicity of the model allows us to explore how different forms of synaptic normalization affect development. In comparison to most previous models of ocular dominance, we find that subtractive postsynaptic normalization is redundant and divisive presynaptic normalization is sufficient for normal development. Third, the model predicts that the more often one eye generates waves relative to the other eye, the more LGN units will monocularly respond to the more active eye. In the limit when one eye does not generate any waves, that eye totally disconnects from the LGN allowing the non–deprived eye to innervate all of the LGN. Thus, as well as accounting for normal retinogeniculate development, the model also predicts development under abnormal conditions which can be experimentally tested.