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User:Paul C. Foster/Ocular Dominance Column Outline

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Ocular dominance columns are stripes of neurons in the visual cortex of certain mammals (including humans) that respond preferentially to input from one eye or the other.[1] The columns span multiple cortical layers, and are laid out in a striped pattern across the surface of the striate cortex. The stripes lie perpendicular to the orientation columns.

Ocular dominance columns were important in early studies of cortical plasticity, as it was found that monocular deprivation causes the columns to degrade, with the non-deprived eye assuming control of more of the cortical cells.[2]

It is believed that ocular dominance columns must be important in binocular vision. Surprisingly, however, many animals, such as squirrel monkeys, are known to often be missing ocular dominance columns and still have binocular vision. This has led some to question whether they serve a purpose, or are just a byproduct of development[3].

History

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Discovery

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Ocular dominance columns were discovered in the 1960s by Hubel and Wiesel as part of their Nobel prize winning work on the structure of the visual cortex in cats. They have since been found in many animals, such as ferrets, macaques, and humans. Notably, they are also absent in many animals with binocular vision, such as rats[4].

Structure

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Ocular dominance columns are stripe shaped regions that lie perpendicular to the orientation columns in V1[5].

A simulation of ODC column pattern

They are enervated by input from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) into layer 4 and have mostly reciprocal projections to many other parts of the visual cortex[6].


Relation to Other features of V1

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Whole section can be reffed from [5] also great images in that reference, but too many for this article The ocular dominance columns are stripe shaped and cover the primary (striate) visual cortex. If the columns corresponding to one eye were colored, a pattern similar to that shown in the accompanying figure would be visible when looking at the surface of the cortex. However, the same region of cortex could also be colored by the direction of edge that it responds to, giving the orientation columns.[note 1]

  • On top of orientation columns
  • Perpendicular to orientation columns at edges
  • Registered:
    • Centered on cytox blobs
    • Centered on pinwheels
    • Contrary to prior belief, centers of pinwheels and cytox are not coincident
  • Striate visual cortex can be divided into "modules" or "hypercolumns" however, due to irregular shape, they do not form a regular mosaic. also the division of modules is artificial, as the boundaries are fuzzy.

Development

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Formation

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There is no consensus yet as to how ODCs are initially developed. One possibility is that they develop through Hebbian learning triggered by spontaneous activity in the eyes of the developing fetus, or in the LGN. Another possibility is that axonal guidance cues may guide the formation, or a combination of mechanisms may be at work.

  • ODCs form before birth[7]
  • spontaneous waves of discharge in retina may direct ODC growth before birth through plastic mechanism[8]
  • these waves have been shown to direct eye specific segregation in LGN [9]
    • there is evidence that these retinal waves also induce the formation of ODCs before birth[10]

Plasticity

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Sensitive periods

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[Mention work of hubel and wiesel, stryker and shatz,Crair et al]

  • Critical period, now called sensitive period, exists during which the ODCs are modified by plasticity
  • If both eyes are closed, removed ,or silenced during CP its ODCs shrink or are completely eliminated[11].
  • If one eye is closed ("monocular deprivation") [2], removed, or silenced [12] during CP its ODCs corresponding to the affected eye shrink.

Models

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Many models have been proposed to explain the development and plasticity of the ODCs. In general these models can be split into two categories, those that posit formation via chemotaxis and those that posit a Hebbian activity dependent mechanism[10].

  • Generally chemotaxis models assume activity independent formation via the action of axon guidance molecules with the structures only later being refined by activity
    • But there are now known to be activity dependent [13][14] and activity modifying [15][16]guidance molecules.

Modified Hebbian learning

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  • One major model of the formation of the stripes seen in ODCs is that they form by hebbian competition between axon terminals.[17]
  • The ODCs look like Turing patterns, which can be formed by Hebbian mechanisms when incoming activity is locally excitatory and long range inhibitory.[17]
  • Some models are pure excitatory, some inhibitory, some mixed[18][19][20]

Chemotaxis

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Chemotactic models posit the existence of axon guidance molecules that direct the initial formation of the ODCs

  • Models tend not to be very specific since no axon guidance molecule has ever been found.[21]
  • Most chemotaxis models require an activity dependent process to take over after formation[22]
  • Work in achiasmatic Belgian sheepdogs makes activity dependent formation unlikely and shows that the columns are probably temporal vs. nasal rather than contra vs ipsilateral[23]
    • Sperry believed there were axon guidance molecules that distinguish temporal from nasal retina[24]

Turing Mechanism

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This section can be entirely reffed from the great book on self organization:[25]

  • Turing patterns or reaction diffusion patterns happen in systems with local positive feedback and long range negative feedback.
  • Turing patterns are common in biology, ex. zebra stripes, leopard spots, almost all coat patterns.
  • Grid cells may be formed by turing patterns
  • ODCs are identical to turing patterns seen in simulation
  • These patterns could be caused by chemical interactions between axon guidance molecules or by hebbian activity dependent mechansm
    • Turing patterns thus don't settle the chem vs hebbian debate.


Function

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It was has long been believed that ocular dominance columns play some role in binocular vision[10]. However, it has been reported that squirrel monkeys, which lack often ocular dominance stripes, have a stereoacuity comparable to that of human observers [26]. Furthermore, several observations indicate that species with no clear ocular dominance columns still display excellent visual capabilities[]. Another candidate function for ocular dominance columns (and for columns in general) is the minimization of connection lengths and processing time, which could be evolutionarily important[27].Many believe that the ocular dominance columns serve no function[3]

Notes/Quotes

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1."In the squirrel monkey, no relationship exists between ocular dominance columns (when present) and CO patches (Horton & Hocking 1996a)"in The cortical column: a structure without a function 2."Orientation pinwheels tend to be situated in the middle of ocular dominance columns (Bartfeld & Grinvald 1992; Blasdel 1992b; Crair et al. 1997)."ibid 3."Columns are often regarded as a special feature of the cortex, but retinal input to the superior colliculus is segregated into parallel stripes that resemble closely ocular dominance columns (Hubel et al. 1975)."[3] 4."The only salient point to emerge is that species with ocular dominance columns are predators. Among mammals, efficient predation requires high-grade stereopsis, but as outlined in the previous paragraph, disparity-tuned cells appear to have no systematic relationship with ocular dominance columns."[3]

Questions for Shatz

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-In (Stryker and Harris 1986) it is mentioned that binocular blockade completely removes ocular dominance columns, but in papers with monocular manipulations it seems that the destruction is only partial. How should I interpret this, and should I address it in the article? -Are retinal waves different nasally from temporally? If so, than nasal-temporal activity dependent segregation is unsurprising, contradicting the surprise at mirror symmetry found in (Adams & Horton 2003). I have included the Adams and Horton paper as strong evidence for the chemotaxis camp, but I'm unsure if I should. -What do you make of the Crowley and Katz claim of ODC-like patches in enucleated animals? -Is there any evidence for the MHC mechanisms of plasticity in V1? -Do firing patterns similar to retinal waves occur from any other source? Should I be including any other sources of experience independent activity in my description of prenatal ODC formation? -Is the critical/sensitive period for experience dependent column plasticity distinct from the period when ODCs form initially before birth? I'm thinking of adding a representative development timeline to the article, assuming such a thing exists. -Considering the audience ("The interested lay reader"), should I include information about the relation to the subplate? -I have so far included little on inhibitory plasticity effects, because I have had trouble finding information on it. Should I add more, and, if so, where can I find a description of it? -What is cytochrome oxidase? There are apparently blobs of it, and it is correlated to activity, but other than that I can't figure out why it seems to be so important to everyone. -Do you know of any major developments in the ODC field in the last five years? I haven't found much, and I wonder if I'm missing something.

Notes

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  1. ^ A very good analogy for this is the idea of coloring a map. Just like a map of Asia could be colored by religion or by language, the columns are not physical things but regions defined by shared attributes. Also much like a map of religion the borders tend to be fuzzy with no clear distinction between one area and the next columns often don't have sharp borders. Similarly, there may be overlap, just as people at the border between France and Germany are a mixture of French speakers, German speakers, or bilingual. There are even occasional neurons belonging to the ipsilateral eye in a contralateral column just like the occasional Portuguese speaker may be found in China. It was once believed the columns were discrete units with sharp borders but the idea of fuzzy, mostly continuous regions is now preferred.[3]

References

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[TODO: convert these to pure APA, remove links in final article] [TODO: most of these are review articles. Since these are more coherent than primary sources, I will convert to primary source references after I'm done writing]

  1. ^ Kolb & Whishaw: Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology, 2003
  2. ^ a b http://jp.physoc.org/content/281/1/267.full.pdf#page=1&view=FitH Shatz, C. J. & Stryker, M. P. (1978) Ocular dominance in layer IV of the cat’s visual cortex and the effects of monocular deprivation. Journal of Physiology 281:267–83.
  3. ^ a b c d e http://hebb.mit.edu/courses/connectomics/Horton%20Adams%20cortical%20column%20structure%20without%20function%2005.pdf Horton J.C. and Adams D.L. (2005) The cortical column: a structure without a function. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 360: 837-862. Cite error: The named reference "nofunc" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Horton J.C. and Hocking D.R. (1996) Intrinsic variability of ocular dominance column periodicity in normal macaque monkeys. J. Neurosci., 16:7228-7339.
  5. ^ a b http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC50666/pdf/pnas01098-0266.pdf Bartfeld E, Grinvald A. Relationships between orientation-preference pinwheels, cytochrome oxidase blobs, and ocular-dominance columns in primate striate cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1992;89:11905–11909.
  6. ^ Van Essen DC, Anderson CH, Felleman DJ. Information processing in the primate visual system: an integrated systems perspective. Science 255: 419–423, 1992.
  7. ^ Crowley J.C. and Katz L.C. (2000) Early development of ocular dominance columns. Science, 290: 1321 – 1324.
  8. ^ Chiu C. and Weliky M. (2002) Relationship of correlated spontaneous activity to functional ocular dominance columns in the developing visual cortex. Neuron, 35: 1123 – 1134.
  9. ^ http://library.ibp.ac.cn/html/cogsci/neuron-2002-357.pdf Stellwagen D, Shatz CJ. An instructive role for retinal waves in the development of retinogeniculate connectivity. Neuron 33: 357–367, 2002.
  10. ^ a b c http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2655105/ Huberman, A.D. et al. (2008) Mechanisms underlying development of visual maps and receptive fields. Annu Rev. Neurosci. 31, 479–509
  11. ^ http://www.jneurosci.org/content/6/8/2117.full.pdf+html Binocular Impulse Blockade Prevents the Formation of Ocular Dominance Columns in Cat Visual Cortex
  12. ^ http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/~idl/CV/Chapman_Oculardominance_Nature_1986.pdf Chapman, B., Jacobson, M.D., Reiter, H.O., and Stryker, M.P. (1986). Ocular dominance shift in kitten visual cortex caused by imbalance in retinal electrical activity. Nature 324, 154–156.
  13. ^ Hanson MG, Landmesser LT. Normal patterns of spontaneous activity are required for correct motor axon guidance and the expression of specific guidance molecules. Neuron. 2004;43:687–701.
  14. ^ Song HJ, Poo MM. 1999. Signal transduc- tionunderlyinggrowthconeguidanceby diffusible factors. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 9:355–63
  15. ^ Bouzioukh F, Daoudal G, Falk J, Debanne D, Rougon G, Castellani V. Semaphorin3A regulates synaptic function of differentiated hippocampal neurons. Eur. J. Neurosci. 2006;23:2247–2254.
  16. ^ Sahay A, et al. Secreted semaphorins modulate synaptic transmission in the adult hippocampus. J Neurosci. 2005;25:3613–3620.
  17. ^ a b Miller K.D., Keller J.B. and Stryker C.D. (1989) Ocular dominance column development:analysis and simulation. Science, 111:123-145.
  18. ^ Harris A.E., Ermentrout G.B. and Small S.L. (1997) A model of ocular dominance column development by competition for trophic factor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94:9944-9949.
  19. ^ Elliott T. and Shadbolt N.R. (1998) Competition for neurotrophic factors: mathematical analysis. Neural computation, 10:1939-1981.
  20. ^ Miller K.D., Keller J.B. and Stryker C.D. (1989) Ocular dominance column development:analysis and simulation. Science, 111:123-145.
  21. ^ Huberman personal interview
  22. ^ Crair M.C., Horton J.C., Antonini A. and Stryker M.P. (2001) Emergence of ocular dominance columns in cat visual cortex by 2 weeks of age. J. Comparative Neurol., 430: 235-249.
  23. ^ Dell’Osso LF, Williams RW. Ocular motor abnormalities in achiasmatic mutant Belgian sheepdogs: unyoked eye move- ments in a mammal. Vis Res 1995;35:109–16.
  24. ^ Meyer, R. L. 1998. Roger Sperry and his Chemoaffinity Hypothesis. Neuropsychologia 36: 957-980.
  25. ^ Gershenson C. (2007). Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems, CopIt ArXives, Mexico. TS0002EN
  26. ^ Livingstone M.S., Nori S., Freeman D.C., and Hubel D.H. (1995) Stereopsis and binocularity in the squirrel monkey. Vision Res., 35:345-354.
  27. ^ http://www.nervana.montana.edu/~alex/public/constraints/Chklovskii-ocular_dominance.pdf Chklovskii DB, Koulakov AA. 2000. A wire length minimization approach to ocular dom- inance patterns in mammalian visual cortex. Physica A 284:318–34

Further Reading

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  • Katz LC, Crowley JC. (2002). Development of cortical circuits: lessons from ocular dominance columns. Nat Rev Neurosci, 3(1):34-42.
  • The cortical column: a structure without a function -great review of visual cortex columns in general. Talks about the mirror symmetry issue
  • A Computational Model for the Development of Multiple Maps in Primary Visual Cortex-simulation that can account for all observed column structure.

See also

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Category:Visual system Category:Neuroscience

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