Functional and developmental analysis of a visual corticopretectal pathway in the cat: a neuroanatomical and electrophysiological study.

The sensory corticopretectal projection in the cat and in its postnatal development were investigated combining neuroanatomical and electrophysiological techniques. The anatomical pattern of fiber termination was studied in relation to age using the anterograde HRP tracing method. Large injections were made in areas 17 and 18 of one or both hemispheres in 1-13 week old kittens and cats. Terminal label in the ipsilateral pretectum was seen only after the fourth week of life. Electrical stimulation in the same cortical areas evoked postsynaptic orthodromic excitation in 9-18% of cells at 4 weeks increasing to about 60% in the adult. In cats, but not in kittens, successful stimulation depended on the retinotopic matching of stimulation and recording sites. In adult cats a high incidence of direction and velocity tuning and a high degree of binocularity were seen in cells driven by the cortex as opposed to cells not so driven. Cortex driven cells in cats and kittens received convergent retinal input mainly via direct W-fibers, whereas cells not driven from cortex shock mainly received delayed W-fiber input. In kittens visual responses lacked sensitivity for direction and high movement velocity of patterns until 6 weeks postnatally, whereas ocular dominance distribution was not age-dependent.