Remodelling of Early Axonal Projections Through the Selective Elimination of Neurons and Long Axon Collaterals

Studies using neuroanatomical techniques have shown that the connections characteristic of the mature vertebrate brain are brought about by a considerable refinement of the projections initially established during development. The selective loss of neurons and long axon collaterals plays a major role in this remodeling process as illustrated in the development of the retina and cortex of the rat. In the retina, two-thirds of the initial population of ganglion cells (RGCs) die early. This loss serves to remove selectively RGCs that make erroneous axonal projections, including those which project to an incorrect target, to an inappropriate part of a correct target, or to the wrong side of the brain. Studies using the sodium channel blocker, tetrodotoxin, suggest that in rats the selective elimination of erroneously projecting RGCs is based, in part, on patterns of impulse activity. In the cortex a different mechanism is illustrated. All neocortical areas initially give rise to callosal and pyramidal tract axons but through a process of selective collateral elimination not involving cell death these projections assume the limited distributions seen in adult rats. Manipulations resulting in the maintenance of such long collaterals suggest that their removal is functionally and locally determined. In contrast to error elimination, this phenomenon of collateral elimination may be a developmental strategy for generating connectional diversity while limiting the amount of information required for the regional specification of the cortex.