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A theory of cortical map formation in the visual brain.

A theory of cortical map formation in the visual brain.

Authors :
Najafian S
Koch E
Teh KL
Jin J
Rahimi-Nasrabadi H
Zaidi Q
Kremkow J
Alonso JM
Source :
Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2022 Apr 28; Vol. 13 (1), pp. 2303. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Apr 28.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

The cerebral cortex receives multiple afferents from the thalamus that segregate by stimulus modality forming cortical maps for each sense. In vision, the primary visual cortex maps the multiple dimensions of the visual stimulus in patterns that vary across species for reasons unknown. Here we introduce a general theory of cortical map formation, which proposes that map diversity emerges from species variations in the thalamic afferent density sampling sensory space. In the theory, increasing afferent sampling density enlarges the cortical domains representing the same visual point, allowing the segregation of afferents and cortical targets by multiple stimulus dimensions. We illustrate the theory with an afferent-density model that accurately replicates the maps of different species through afferent segregation followed by thalamocortical convergence pruned by visual experience. Because thalamocortical pathways use similar mechanisms for axon segregation and pruning, the theory may extend to other sensory areas of the mammalian brain.<br /> (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2041-1723
Volume :
13
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nature communications
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
35484133
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29433-y