Three Dimensional Organisation of the Adult Mouse dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

The dLGN (dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus) is the gateway to cortical processing for visual information encoded by RGCs (retinal ganglion cells). Owing to advances in genetic manipulations, the mouse is increasingly the model system of choice for understanding the function and organisation of the visual system. However the mouse dLGN has not been thoroughly investigated anatomically due to its difficult topology and location in the brain. We addressed this issue by indentifying the best reconstruction paradigm for recovering the true 3D shape of the dLGN from serial histological sections. We have placed each animal into standard space coordinates which allows for analysis on a population level rather than on an individual basis. Having investigated several different strategies, the optimal process proved to be the manual alignment of individual sections to a MRI template (Align3TP program) followed by an algorithm that corrects for the local deformations of individual sections (RegFSD program). Our anatomical investigations into the geniculo-cortical projection used discrete cortical injections of fluorescent microspheres (RetroBeads). This has allowed us to quantitatively define projection columns in 3D, and investigate how they vary with the location of the cortical injection. Furthermore, the orientation, spread, and cellular components of the column were investigated to search for defining characteristics of projection columns, using PCA (principal component analysis). Our population study in standard space has allowed us to pool data across animals and investigate the topographic order of the geniculo-cortical projection. We have investigated different metrics for examining the precision of the geniculo-cortical projection in 3D. The data shows how altered neonatal spontaneous activity in the AChRnp2~~ mutant affects the geniculo-cortical projection column.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

King's College London

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Leiwe, Marcus

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Thompson, Ian
• Burrone, Juan

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:kclpure.kcl.ac.uk:studenttheses/9abe5868-cf4e-4968-adf8-0bb885be040d

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kclpure.kcl.ac.uk:studenttheses/9abe5868-cf4e-4968-adf8-0bb885be040d