Patterns of synaptic connections in the visual system are remarkably precise. These connections dictate the receptive field properties of individual visual neurons and ultimately determine the quality of visual perception. Spontaneous neural activity is necessary for the development of various receptive field properties and visual feature maps. In recent years, attention has shifted to understanding the mechanisms by which spontaneous activity in the developing retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, and visual cortex instruct the axonal and dendritic refinements that give rise to orderly connections in the visual system. Axon guidance cues and a growing list of other molecules, including immune system factors, have also recently been implicated in visual circuit wiring. A major goal now is to determine how these molecules cooperate with spontaneous and visually evoked activity to give rise to the circuits underlying precise receptive field tuning and orderly visual maps.

中文翻译：

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视觉地图和感受野发展的潜在机制。

视觉系统中突触连接的模式非常精确。这些连接决定了单个视觉神经元的感受野特性，并最终决定了视觉感知的质量。自发的神经活动对于各种感受野特性和视觉特征图的发展是必要的。近年来，注意力已经转移到理解发育中的视网膜、外侧膝状体和视觉皮层中的自发活动指导轴突和树突细化的机制，从而在视觉系统中产生有序的连接。轴突引导线索和越来越多的其他分子，包括免疫系统因素，最近也与视觉电路布线有关。