美国耶鲁大学医学院Michael C. Crair研究组发现视网膜波通过模拟未来光流来启动视觉运动检测。2021年7月23日出版的《科学》杂志发表了这项成果。

他们描述了新生小鼠发育中的瞬态窗口，在此期间自发性视网膜波的空间传播类似于前向自运动产生的光流模式。他们表明波方向性需要形成成人方向选择性视网膜回路的相同回路组件，并且波方向性的慢性破坏会改变上丘神经元方向选择性反应的发展。这些数据展示了发展中的视觉系统如何模拟自发活动以模拟外部世界的行为学相关特征，从而指导自组织。

据了解，感知和响应环境刺激的能力出现在缺乏感官体验的情况下。睁眼前的自发性视网膜活动指导哺乳动物视网膜变位和眼睛特异性分离的改进，但其在高阶视觉反应特性发展中的作用仍不清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Retinal waves prime visual motion detection by simulating future optic flow

Author: Xinxin Ge, Kathy Zhang, Alexandra Gribizis, Ali S. Hamodi, Aude Martinez Sabino, Michael C. Crair

Issue&Volume: 2021/07/23

Abstract: The ability to perceive and respond to environmental stimuli emerges in the absence of sensory experience. Spontaneous retinal activity prior to eye opening guides the refinement of retinotopy and eye-specific segregation in mammals, but its role in the development of higher-order visual response properties remains unclear. Here, we describe a transient window in neonatal mouse development during which the spatial propagation of spontaneous retinal waves resembles the optic flow pattern generated by forward self-motion. We show that wave directionality requires the same circuit components that form the adult direction-selective retinal circuit and that chronic disruption of wave directionality alters the development of direction-selective responses of superior colliculus neurons. These data demonstrate how the developing visual system patterns spontaneous activity to simulate ethologically relevant features of the external world and thereby instruct self-organization.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abd0830

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6553/eabd0830