Neil J. Ritter, Nora M. Anderson, Stephen D. Van Hooser

Sensory experience is necessary for the development of some receptive field properties of neurons in primary sensory cortical areas. However, it remains unclear whether the parameters of an individual animal's experience play an instructive role and influence the tuning parameters of cortical sensory neurons as selectivity emerges, or rather if experience merely permits the completion of processes that are fully seeded at the onset of experience. Here we have examined whether the speed of visual stimuli that are presented to visually naïve ferrets can influence the parameters of speed tuning and direction selectivity in cortical neurons. Visual experience is necessary for the development of direction selectivity in carnivores. If, during development, cortical neurons had the flexibility to choose from among different inputs with a range of spatial positions and temporal delays, then correlation-based plasticity mechanisms could instruct the precise spatiotemporal selectivity that underlies speed tuning and direction selectivity, and the parameters of an individual animal's experience would influence the tuning that emerges. Alternatively, the tuning parameters of these neurons may already be established at the onset of visual experience, and experience may merely permit the expression of this tuning. We found that providing different groups of animals with either slow (12.5 deg/sec) or fast (50 deg/sec) visual stimuli resulted in emergence of direction selectivity, but that speed tuning and direction selectivity were similar in the two groups. These results are more consistent with a permissive role for experience in the development of direction selectivity. The proper development of brain circuits and neural response properties depends on both nature - factors independent of experience - and nurture - factors dependent on experience. In this study, we examined whether the quality of visual experience of an individual animal influences the development of basic sensory detectors in primary visual cortex. We found that although visual experience is required for the development of direction selectivity, tuning for stimulus speed could not be altered by specific experience with slow or fast stimuli. These results suggest that the tuning parameters for direction selectivity are specified independently of an animal's sensory experience, and that a range of experiences can promote the proper mature expression of direction selectivity in primary visual cortex.