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Changes in fiber organization within the chiasmatic region of mammals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Benjamin E. Reese  and
Gary E. Baker
Benjamin E. Reese
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Research Institute and Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Gary E. Baker
Affiliation:
W.M. Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco
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Abstract

Introduction

Classical views of the optic chiasm maintain four propositions about the retinofugal pathways: (1) each optic nerve contains a retinotopic representation of its respective retinal surface; (2) this retinotopic map in the nerve is the basis for the subsequent segregation of the decussating from the non-decussating fibers; (3) this retinotopy in the nerve is also the basis for the presence of retinotopy found within the half-retinal maps in the optic tracts; and (4) the half-retinal maps from each optic nerve are brought together within the chiasm to yield a unified, binocularly congruent, map in the optic tract (Brodal, 1969; DukeElder, 1961; Polyak, 1957; Wolff, 1940). The appeal of this classical view is in its simplicity, based on the assumption that the retinofugal pathway should replicate the sensory surface along its course. We now know that each of these four propositions is incorrect, and that the error is not one simply of degree or extent (Guillery, 1982, 1991). Rather, the above description of the visual pathway is fundamentally flawed because it has failed to take into account the constraints under which the pathway develops. We shall first consider the evidence for rejecting the classical view, from recent studies on the organization of the retinofugal pathway in adult animals and on the development of that organization. We shall then describe three transformations in the fiber order which all occur in the chiasmatic region, two of which were only recently recognized, and for which we must account.

Observations from adult organization

The difference in the fiber order in the optic nerve and tract

Keywords

Retinal ganglion cellOptic nerveOptic tractDecussation patternRetinoptic mapChronotopic order
Type
Review
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 9 , Issue 6 , December 1992 , pp. 527 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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