AXON DEVELOPMENT IN NEOCORTEX
A new work provides a detailed picture of early axonal development using in vivo two-photon time-lapse imaging (Portera-Cailliau, et al. Diverse mode of axon elaboration in the developing neocortex. PloS Biol. 3, 272, 2005).
Portera-Cailliau and colleagues, studying axonal growth and pruning in talamocortical neurons and interneurons in layer 1 of transgenic mice neocortex, show distinct patterns of structural and dynamic change according to nervous cell type.
The researchers conclude that different cell types rely on different strategies of elaboration to innervate their targets in identical environments.