Main description:

Self-organizing Neural Maps: From Retina to Tectum describes the underlying processes that determine how retinal fibers self-organize into an orderly visual map. The formation of neural maps is a fundamental organizing concept in neurodevelopment that can shed light on developmental mechanisms and the functions of genes elsewhere. The book presents a summary of research in the retinotectal field with an ultimate goal of synthesizing how underlying mechanisms in neural development harmoniously come together to create life. A broad spectrum of neuroscientists and biomedical scientists with differing backgrounds and varied expertise will find this book useful.

Contents:

1. Overview and Basics of the Retinotectal Projection 2. Early Work Supports, but Also Contradicts, Rigid Chemoaffinity 3. The search for chemoaffinity molecules - verification of molecular gradients 4. Plasticity after surgical ablations shows the limits of chemoaffinity 5. Natural Plasticity - Analysis of the effects of divergent retinal and tectal growth on the projection 6. Specification and developmental genetics of Eph/ephrin gradients 7. Growth of retinal axons along the visual pathway 8. Genetic Analysis of the molecular gradients defining map formation 9. Activity mechanisms shape central retinal projections 10. Activity: Molecular signaling to growth mechanisms