Selectivity for direction of motion is a key feature of primary visual cortical neurons. Visual experience is required for direction selectivity in carnivore and primate visual cortex, but the circuit mechanisms of its formation remain incompletely understood. Here, we examined how developing lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons may contribute to cortical direction selectivity. Using in vivo electrophysiology techniques, we examined LGN receptive field properties of visually naive female ferrets before and after exposure to 6 h of motion stimuli to assess the effect of acute visual experience on LGN cell development. We found that acute experience with motion stimuli did not significantly affect the weak orientation or direction selectivity of LGN neurons. In addition, we found that neither latency nor sustainedness or transience of LGN neurons significantly changed with acute experience. These results suggest that the direction selectivity that emerges in cortex after acute experience is computed in cortex and cannot be explained by changes in LGN cells.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The development of typical neural circuitry requires experience-independent and experience-dependent factors. In the visual cortex of carnivores and primates, selectivity for motion arises as a result of experience, but we do not understand whether the major brain area that sits between the retina and the visual cortex—the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus—also participates. Here, we found that lateral geniculate neurons do not exhibit changes as a result of several hours of visual experience with moving stimuli at a time when visual cortical neurons undergo a rapid change. We conclude that lateral geniculate neurons do not participate in this plasticity and that changes in cortex are likely responsible for the development of direction selectivity in carnivores and primates.

运动方向的选择性是初级视觉皮层神经元的一个关键特征。肉食动物和灵长类视觉皮层的方向选择性需要视觉经验，但其形成的回路机制仍不完全清楚。在这里，我们研究了发育中的外侧膝状核（LGN）神经元如何有助于皮质方向选择性。使用体内电生理学技术，我们检查了视觉幼稚雌性雪貂在暴露于 6 小时运动刺激之前和之后的 LGN 感受野特性，以评估急性视觉体验对 LGN 细胞发育的影响。我们发现，运动刺激的敏锐体验并没有显着影响 LGN 神经元的弱定向或方向选择性。此外，我们发现 LGN 神经元的潜伏期、持续性或短暂性均不会因急性体验而发生显着变化。这些结果表明，急性经历后皮层中出现的方向选择性是在皮层中计算的，不能用 LGN 细胞的变化来解释。

意义陈述典型神经回路的发育需要经验独立和经验依赖的因素。在食肉动物和灵长类动物的视觉皮层中，运动的选择性是由于经验而产生的，但我们不知道位于视网膜和视觉皮层之间的主要大脑区域（丘脑的外侧膝状核）是否也参与其中。在这里，我们发现，当视觉皮层神经元经历快速变化时，外侧膝状体神经元不会因数小时的移动刺激视觉体验而表现出变化。我们得出的结论是，外侧膝状体神经元不参与这种可塑性，皮层的变化可能是食肉动物和灵长类动物方向选择性发展的原因。