Retinal drive of spontaneous system activity

新生儿大脑的活动模式，尽管它对突触的正常发育至关重要 连接性，在很大程度上是未知的。最近的研究表明，在新生大鼠的皮质中，几乎所有的 神经元活动由一连串的同步振荡活动组成，类似于在 睡眠中的成年人。在躯体感觉皮层，这些爆发与自发的肌肉痉挛有关。 和感官输入。这种关联产生的准确程度对于理解如何 在正常感觉输入形成之前，不同的区域协调活动。视觉系统是 这是研究这个问题的一个很好的模型。视觉系统的大部分组织发生在 在视觉之前，由视网膜神经节细胞自发爆发的活动驱动。通过组合 配对录音，视网膜的药物操作，以及电刺激，实验中 这一建议将辨别视网膜活动模式主要视觉目标的活动，或是否它的行为触发 内生振荡器集中。这些信息将有助于开发准确的活动模式。 依附性发展。

The patterns of activity in the brains of neonates, though it is critical for the normal development of synaptic connectivity, is largely unknown. Recent work has shown that in the cortex of neonatal rats, nearly all neuronal activity consists of bursts of synchronous oscillatory activity similar to spindle waves observed in adults during sleep. In the somatosensory cortex these bursts are correlated with spontaneous muscle jerks and sensory input. How precisely such correlation comes about will be important to understand how different regions coordinate activity in the time before normal sensory input develops. The visual system is an excellent model in which to study this question. Much of the organization of the visual system occurs before vision, driven by spontaneous bursts of activity in retinal ganglion cells. Through a combination of paired recordings, pharmacological manipulation of the retina, and electrical stimulation, the experiments in this proposal will discern if retinal activity patterns activity in the major visual targets, or if it acts to trigger endogenous oscillators centrally. This information will aid in the development of accurate models of activity dependent development.