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Visualization of Cortical Modules in Flattened Mammalian Cortices
Published on: January 22, 2018
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Modular strategy for development of the hierarchical visual network in mice
Tomonari Murakami1,2,3, Teppei Matsui4,5,6,7,8, Masato Uemura9,10,11,12
1Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. t-mura@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
Nature
|August 3, 2022
Summary
The mammalian brain
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Mammalian brains feature hierarchical and parallel networks, crucial for visual system development.
- The visual system forms dorsal and ventral streams through connections between thalamic nuclei and cortical areas.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental strategy of visual network wiring.
- To determine if visual network formation follows a sequential or modular approach.
Main Methods:
- Tracing neural pathways from the mouse retina to visual areas.
- Analyzing the formation of parallel modules and corticocortical connections.
- Investigating the role of retina-derived activity in establishing retinotopic connections.
Main Results:
- Neural pathways form parallel modules from the retina to visual areas via thalamic nuclei before corticocortical connections.
- Corticocortical connections emerge later to integrate these parallel modules.
- Retina-derived activity is essential for forming retinotopic inter-module connections.
Conclusions:
- The visual network develops in a modular fashion, with parallel modules forming first and then concatenating.
- This modular strategy is efficient for building complex hierarchical networks.
- Parallel modules may serve as templates for cortical streams in higher-order thalamic nuclei.
