Review

Retinal waves are unlikely to instruct the formation of eye-specific retinogeniculate projections

Leo M Chalupa

Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences, and Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA, and Office of the Vice President for Research, The George Washington University, Washington DC 20052

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Neural Development 2009, 4:25doi:10.1186/1749-8104-4-25

Published:	6 July 2009

See related review by Marla Feller, http://www.neuraldevelopment.com/content/4/1/24

Abstract

In all mammalian species the projections of the two eyes to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus are initially overlapping before gradually forming the eye-specific domains evident at maturity. It is widely thought that retinal waves of neuronal activity play an instructional role in this developmental process. Here, I discuss the myriad reasons why retinal waves are unlikely to have such a role, and suggest that eye-specific molecular cues in combination with neuronal activity are most probably involved in the formation of eye-specific retinogeniculate projections.