Models for topographic map formation

Willshaw D., and Price, D. (2003). In: Van Ooyen, A., ed. Modeling Neural Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 213-244.

Abstract

The successful functioning of the nervous system relies to a large degree on the existence of precise patterns of connectivity within and between populations of nerve cells. One fundamental question for neurobiology is how such patterns of connections are formed. In particular, how are connections made so as to form a geographical map of one structure onto another, as found in all vertebrate visual systems?

This chapter has three parts. (1) We review experimental and theoretical methodologies that address the question of how maps of connections are formed in the nervous system. (2) We review the main hypotheses for neural map making that have been put forward. (3) We then present the major experimental evidence for map making and the computational models that have emerged. We outline the challenges posed by new experimental evidence relating to the underlying molecular biology of the formation of nerve connections emerging from the recent results of genetic manipulations.