Development of geniculocortical axon arbors in a primate

The main objective of the present study was to describe the postnatal development of magnocellular and parvocellular LGN axons within the primate striate cortex. For this purpose, we bulk labeled axons in neonatal prosimians (galagos) in vivo or in vitro at regular intervals from birth (PO) to 12 weeks after birth by injecting horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into white matter anterior to the striate cortex. Filled axons within layer IV were reconstructed, quantitatively analyzed, and compared to a population of adult axons described previously (Florence & Casagrande, 1987). Our results show that although axons are morphologically immature at birth, they are restricted to the upper (IV alpha) and lower (IV beta) tiers of layer IV of the striate cortex as in adults. In adults, we referred to the presumed magnocellular LGN axons terminating in IV alpha as type I and the presumed parvocellular axons terminating in IV beta as type II. We used the same convention for developing axons. From birth to 3 weeks postnatal, type I and II axon classes are more variable in appearance than adult counterparts, and are not morphologically class distinct. As axons mature, parent axon shafts increase in caliber, arbors become smaller and more radial, and other immature features (e.g. spikes, protrusions, growth cones) are less evident. Both arbor classes mature slowly and some still exhibit immature features (e.g. growth cones) as late as 12 weeks postnatally. Although arbors do not show class-distinctive features until late in development, each class does show some unique maturational trends. Type I arbors are only slightly larger than adult counterparts at birth, whereas type II arbors are dramatically larger. Type I arbors increase in branch complexity with age, whereas type II arbors simply show a shift in complexity toward the center of the arbor with decreasing size over time. These growth trends suggest that magnocellular and parvocellular pathways to cortex could be differentially vulnerable to the manipulation of postnatal visual experience.