The day started with an overview of neural development from an experimental and a theoretical perspective. David Price (University of Edinburgh) summarised the early stages of neural development from the fertilised egg to the emergence of the forebrain, and mentioned progress in understanding how various transcription factors contribute to regional specification. David Willshaw (University of Edinburgh) then introduced some of the motivations behind building theoretical models to investigate neural development, using retinotopic map formation as an example problem.
The remainder of the workshop was devoted to discussing three different problems in more detail. In the first session, three speakers discussed different aspects concerning the development of dendritic trees and axons. First, Bruce Graham (University of Edinburgh) introduced the problem of dendritic development, and highlighted how a simple statistical model can reproduce branching patterns in various cell types. Tim Hely (Santa Fe Institute) described theoretical work looking at interactions between microtubules and actin filaments upon the behaviour of growth cones. Arjen van Ooyen (Netherlands Institute for Brain Research) finished the session by describing a model of chemoattractants and repellants for axon fasciculation and debundling.
The first afternoon session was devoted to the development of nerve connections in two different systems. Richard Ribchester (University of Edinburgh) described experimental progress in understanding the role of neural activity in synapse elimination at the neuromuscular junction. Geoff Goodhill (Georgetown University) summarised some recent experimental and theoretical findings about the development of ocular dominance and orientation selectivity in the visual system.
The last session of the day examined the problem of how retinal cells form regular distributions across the retina (`retinal mosaics'). Glen Jeffery (Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL) described experiments that looked for differences in albino and siamese retinae to try and understand aspects of their development. To close the session, and the day, Stephen Eglen (University of Edinburgh) reviewed the theoretical models that have been proposed for describing developing and adult retinal mosaics.
We would like to thank the BNA for financial support of this workshop.
Further information on the speakers:
ICANN 99 workshops homepage
ICANN 99
conference homepage.