In principle, the development of sensory receptive fields in cortex could arise from experience-independent mechanisms that have been acquired through evolution, or through an online analysis of the sensory experience of the individual animal. Here we review recent experiments that suggest that the development of direction selectivity in carnivore visual cortex requires experience, but also suggest that the experience of an individual animal cannot greatly influence the parameters of the direction tuning that emerges, including direction angle preference and speed tuning. The direction angle preference that a neuron will acquire can be predicted from small initial biases that are present in the naïve cortex prior to the onset of visual experience. Further, experience with stimuli that move at slow or fast speeds does not alter the speed tuning properties of direction-selective neurons, suggesting that speed tuning preferences are built in. Finally, unpatterned optogenetic activation of the cortex over a period of a few hours is sufficient to produce the rapid emergence of direction selectivity in the naïve ferret cortex, suggesting that information about the direction angle preference that cells will acquire must already be present in the cortical circuit prior to experience. These results are consistent with the idea that experience has a permissive influence on the development of direction selectivity.

中文翻译：

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经验是否对视觉皮层方向选择性的发展产生了允许或指导的影响？

原则上，皮质中的感觉感受野的发展可能源于与经验无关的机制，这些机制是通过进化或通过对单个动物的感觉经验进行在线分析而获得的。在这里，我们回顾了最近的实验，这些实验表明食肉动物视觉皮层中方向选择性的发展需要经验，但也表明单个动物的经验不能极大地影响出现的方向调整的参数，包括方向角度偏好和速度调整。神经元将获得的方向角偏好可以从视觉体验开始之前存在于幼稚皮质中的较小初始偏差中预测。进一步，经历了以低速或快速移动的刺激的经验不会改变方向选择神经元的速度调节特性，这表明内置了速度调节偏好。最后，皮质在数小时内无模式的光遗传激活足以产生幼稚的雪貂皮层中方向选择性的迅速出现，表明在体验之前，皮层回路中必须已经存在有关细胞将要获得的方向角偏好的信息。这些结果与以下观点一致：经验对方向选择性的发展具有宽容的影响。在数小时的时间内，皮质的无模式光遗传激活足以在幼稚的雪貂皮质中迅速产生方向选择性，这表明在皮质回路中必须已经存在关于细胞将要获得的方向角偏好的信息去体验。这些结果与以下观点一致：经验对方向选择性的发展具有宽容的影响。在数小时的时间内，皮质的无模式光遗传激活足以在幼稚的雪貂皮质中迅速产生方向选择性，这表明在皮质回路中必须已经存在关于细胞将要获得的方向角偏好的信息去体验。这些结果与以下观点一致：经验对方向选择性的发展具有宽容的影响。