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Topographic refinement of synaptic connections within the developing visual system involves a variety of molecules which interact with impulse activity in order to produce the precise retinotopic maps found in the adult brain. Nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated in this process, as have various growth factors. Within the subcortical visual system, we have recently shown that nitric oxide contributes to pathway refinement in the superior colliculus (SC). Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are also expressed in SC during the time that this pathway undergoes refinement. The role of NO has been demonstrated by showing that refinement of ipsilateral fibers in the retinocollicular pathway is significantly delayed in gene knockout mice in which both the endothelial and neuronal isoforms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) have been disrupted. The effect also depends upon Ca2+ channels because refinement of both the ipsilateral retinocollicular and retinogeniculate pathways is disrupted in genetic mutants in which the β3 subunit of the Ca2+ channel has been deleted. LTD may also be involved in this process, because the time course of its expression correlates with that of pathway refinement and LTD magnitude is depressed by nitrendipine, an L-type Ca2+ channel blocker. LTP is also expressed during early postnatal development in the LGN and SC and may contribute to synaptic stabilization. The role of neurotrophins in pathway refinement in the visual system is also reviewed.

Small horseradish peroxidase injections in the perigeniculate nucleus (PGN) or the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) gave retrograde labeling of many cells in the pontomesencephalic reticular formation (RF), the nuclei raphe dorsalis and centralis linearis, locus coeruleus, nucleus of the optic tract and nucleus parabigeminalis. Antidromic stimulation was used to identify neurons in the RF projecting to the PGN-LGN complex. Threshold mapping through the PGN and the LGN shows separate projection from the reticular formation to the PGN and the LGN.

The synaptic organization in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the albino rabbit was studied with an intracellular recording technique. A disynaptic IPSP from the cortex and a trisynaptic IPSP from the optic nnerve could be recorded from both fast and slow relay cells. These IPSPs are most likely mediated by a common recurrent inhibitory pathaway. No evidence for a feed-forward inhibitory pathway to the relay cells was obtained.

Intracellular recordings from slow relay cells in the rabbit lateral geniculate nucleus demonstrated that the slow cells, just like the fast ones, receive a monosynaptic EPSP and a trisynaptic IPSP from the optic nerve. The IPSP is most likely mediated by interleurones activated by recurrent collaterals of the relay cell axon. In slow relay cells, both the EPSP and the IPSP from the optic nerve are brought about via the same group of slowly-conducting fibers. No mutual inhibition between the fast and the slow conducting system was observed in the rabbit lateral geniculate nucleus.

In the monocular segment of the rabbit lateral geniculate nucleus, relay cells responded exclusively to the contralateral optic input with an EPSP-IPSP sequence. The ipsilateral optic input could neither evoke PSPs nor facilitate the PSPs from the contralateral eye, indicating the absence of binocular inhibition in the segment.