The Role of Neural Activity in Wiring Up the Brain

Recent research addresses how two sources of neural activity interact and influence the visual system in this lecture from Professor Marla B. Feller. Immature neural circuits spontaneously generate correlated activity patterns that are critical for normal development in the nervous systems of vertebrates. Learn about this phenomenon in the mouse retina, where propagating waves have been shown to play a critical role in properly wiring the retina to the brain. In addition to spontaneous retinal waves, light stimulation also plays a role in early retinal function.