Cortical direction selectivity without directional experience

Abstract

How neurones in the visual cortex acquire their response properties during postnatal development is an important question with far-reaching implications. In the present study, we demonstrate the developmental specification of geniculo-cortical afferents using our previously proposed model for the activity-dependent self-organization of neural networks. Our results indicate, in contrast to common beliefs, that both orientation and direction selectivity can be achieved in the primary visual cortex even if the retinae were never exposed to oriented and/or moving objects during development.