Applied Mathematics Colloquium – Jennifer Crodelle,

Title: A simple mathematical model of synapse formation in the developing visual cortex of mice

Abstract: The mammalian primary visual cortex (V1) contains neurons that respond preferentially to oriented visual stimuli (e.g., horizontal bars). In the mouse, these orientation-preferring neurons are scattered throughout V1 in what’s called a “salt and pepper” orientation-preference (OP) map. Despite the seemingly random distribution of OPs in the visual cortex of mice, it has been shown that cells sharing orientation preference are preferentially connected via a chemical synapse in adult mice. Further, cells that were derived from the same progenitor cell during development (called sister cells) are connected preferentially by an electrical connection called a gap junction during the first postnatal week, while chemical synapses are still being formed. In this work, we construct a model of the mouse visual cortex during the first few postnatal weeks and analyze the effect of gap-junctional coupling on the formation of synaptic connections and the resulting OP map.