Graduate Training in Neuroscience
University of Washington
Jaime F. Olavarria
jaime@uw.edu
206-685-1524
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
In my laboratory we study the organization, function and
development of neuronal pathways in the mammalian central visual
system. Our recent work in primates has employed anatomical and
physiological techniques to investigate to what extent visual
pathways subserving different functions are segregated, or
intermixed, at cortical and subcortical processing stages. We are
also interested in studying the role of activity cues on the
development of organized cortico-cortical projections in visual
cortex. We are investigating the hypothesis that the neonatal
specification of patterns of interhemispheric connections through
the corpus callosum depends upon interhemispheric correlated
activity driven by visual input. Our efforts include identifying the
role of spontaneous and visually evoked retinal activity in the
establishment of retinotopically organized patterns of callosal
linkages, as well as the cellular mechanisms underlying the effects
of activity cues on the development of cortical connections.
A time-lapse sequence illustrating the development of cortico-cortical projections in visual cortex of a 6-day old rat.