Universality of the developmental origins of diverse functional maps in the visual cortex

Abstract

The primary visual cortex of higher mammals is organized into diverse functional maps of correlated topography, implying an efficient tiling of functional domains. However, no fundamental principle is available on how systematic organization of the maps could develop initially in various species. Here, we propose that diverse functional maps are seeded from a common framework of retinal afferents, and that this universality of development explains the observed topographical correlations among the maps. From the simulation of retinal ganglion cell mosaics, we successfully developed all four cortical maps observed so far. We validated our model prediction of inter-map relationships from analysis of map data in evolutionarily divergent mammalian species. Our key prediction, the hexagonal periodicity of every functional map, was validated from analysis of the map data in diverse mammalian species. Our results provide new insight into a universal mechanism for the development and evolution of the visual cortex.