Adaptive Synaptic Connections Formed in the Visual Pathways in Response to Congenitally Aberrant Inputs
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
In Siamese cats, some of the axons that pass from the retina to the brain are misrouted in the optic chiasm. The abnormal fibers, which arise in a well-defined and limited part of the temporal retina, pass to the wrong side of the brain. This simple developmental aberration, originating in the eye or in the optic chiasm, produces a number of complex and intriguing secondary changes: the development of neural pathways and synaptic connections is modified in the abnormal brains so that the animal, even though it is not receiving a normal, orderly mapping of the outside world, can still respond appropriately to visual stimuli.
We will consider the central modifications that occur in Siamese cats and will show that they are adaptive. There are rules of synaptic development on the basis of which cortical connections can be modified. Two strategies are used within the developing brain to produce the...
