Sensory experience influences the shape of neurons

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A new discovery is a significant advance in understanding the mechanisms involved in the development of the cerebral cortex.

 

“They found that in situations of visual deprivation, where the cerebral cortex does not receive electrical impulses from the retina, neurons in layer 4 only completed successfully the first phase of development: growth and increase of complexity. However, when it was time to start the second phase of development, the retraction of the apical dendrite, most neurons were unable to make that change and remained in a growth phase, maintaining their pyramidal shape. Therefore, sensory perception, and in this case visual perception, plays a fundamental role in the process of brain development because it determines the shape of many of the neurons of the cerebral cortex.”

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