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Retinofugal fibres change conduction velocity and diameter between the optic nerve and tract in ferrets

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Abstract

IN earlier studies of central nervous fibre tracts, it was tacitly assumed that individual axons are relatively uniform along their length. In the retinofugal pathway in particular, axon diameter, myelin thickness and correlated conduction properties1,2 have been treated as constant throughout the optic nerve, chiasm and tract. We report here that the conduction velocities of fibres contributing to the early components of the compound action potential are significantly greater in the optic tract than in the optic nerve of ferrets, and also that the diameters of the largest retinofugal fibres increase from nerve to tract3. This observation raises significant questions about the developmental mechanisms in the central nervous system that relate the axons, their diameters, and the glia with which they are myelinated. In addition, it indicates that studies that have relied on the constancy of conduction velocity along the retinofugal course4 may require reappraisal.

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Author notes

  1. Michael P. Stryker

    Present address: Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, California, 94143-0444, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Anatomy, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, 0X1 3QX, UK

    Gary E. Baker & Michael P. Stryker

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  1. Gary E. Baker
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  2. Michael P. Stryker
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Baker, G., Stryker, M. Retinofugal fibres change conduction velocity and diameter between the optic nerve and tract in ferrets. Nature 344, 342–345 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344342a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/344342a0

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