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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Large-scale Three-dimensional Imaging of Cellular Organization in the Mouse Neocortex
Published on: September 5, 2018
Precise development of functional and anatomical columns in the neocortex
Ingrid Bureau1, Gordon M G Shepherd, Karel Svoboda
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA.
Abstract:
Sensory cortex is ordered into columns, each tuned to a subset of peripheral stimuli. To identify the principles underlying the construction of columnar architecture, we monitored the development of circuits in the rat barrel cortex, using laser-scanning photostimulation analysis of synaptic connectivity, reconstructions of axonal arbors, and in vivo whole-cell recording. Circuits impinging onto layer 2/3 neurons from layers 4 and 2/3 developed in a monotonic, precise progression, with little evidence for transient hyperinnervation at the level of cortical columns. Consistent with this, synaptic currents measured in layer 2/3 neurons at PND 8, just after these neurons ceased to migrate, revealed already spatially well-tuned receptive fields.
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