Activity-dependent refinement of visual circuitry

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The developing nervous system is able to achieve the remarkable precision of wiring found in the adult brain through a combination of molecular guidance cues and activity-dependent fine-tuning of connections. Much of the research on connection refinement in the past has focused on structural or synaptic changes that occur at the level of individual neurons and their axonal projections onto postsynaptic dendritic targets. In fact, to appreciate how the nervous system optimizes connectivity during development, it is necessary to study not just the activity-dependent remodeling of individual neurons, but rather the interactions between ensembles of neurons in response to patterned activity.