Sensory deprivation, such as a lack of visual stimulation soon after birth, can lead to developmental abnormalities in the brain, but the exact mechanisms that underlie this system remain unclear. In October 3
Engert et al. examined the Xenopus retinotectal system and observed that the receptive field of tectal neurons can be 'trained' to become direction-sensitive minutes after repetitive exposure of the retina to moving bars in a particular direction. The induction of direction-sensitivity depended on the speed of the moving bar and could not be induced by random visual stimuli. In addition, they showed that training-induced changes required spiking of the tectal neuron and activation of a N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor subtype, and ...