Postnatal development of the striate cortical projection onto the extrageniculate visual thalamus in the cat: an HRP study.

The postnatal development of the striate cortical projection onto the extrageniculate visual thalamus was examined by using the orthograde and retrograde HRP methods. At birth, the projection is present, and fibres of the projection terminate in the lateral part of the lateral posterior nucleus. A rough topographical arrangement of the projection is already established. Neurones that give rise to the projection are located exclusively in layer V from birth onward. However, the neurones are much more densely packed at birth than in adult cats. The packing density of the neurones decreases rapidly during the second postnatal week, and afterwards continues to become gradually lower. In the meantime, the cross sectional area of the neurones increases sharply during the second postnatal week. These findings suggest that striate cortical neurones projecting onto the lateral posterior nucleus rapidly complete the final stages of their maturation shortly after the normal opening of the eyelids, and during this time some of these neurones undergo axonal elimination or neuronal death, or both.