5 ms; FA = 8 deg; FOV 250 × 250 mm; voxel size 1.04 × 1.04 × 0.6 mm; 301 sagital slices) were acquired for each participant. The functional images sensitive to blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts were acquired by T2∗-weighted echo-planar imaging (TR = 1.45 s; TE = 30 ms; inplane resolution of 3 mm in 64 × 64 matrix; 28 slices; slice thickness of 3 mm; 1.5 mm interslice gap). We used SPM8 (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm) for MRI data preprocessing and

analysis. Details of the MRI data analysis are described in the Supplemental Experimental Procedures. We thank C. Burke, T. Hare, G. Hein, S. Leiberg, and P. Tobler for useful comments on the manuscript, and K.E. Stephan for advice on MRI data analysis. This work was supported by the Swiss National Center of Competence in the Affective Science and the Neurochoice Project of Systems X (E.F.), JSPS (Y.M.), and Naito Foundation (Y.M.). “
“The formation of specific synaptic connections between Selleck LY294002 distinct sets of afferent axons and MAPK Inhibitor Library manufacturer partner neurons during development is pivotal for normal brain function in vertebrates and invertebrates.

Larger neural circuits are frequently subdivided into reiterated columnar and layered local circuits. This anatomical organization particularly applies to the visual system, where columnar modules form a topographic map to represent visual space, while layered units are instrumental for parallel integration of visual information such as motion or spectral sensitivity (Sanes and Zipursky, 2010). Moreover, during development this architecture helps to spatially group potential synaptic partners and therefore restrict the number of possible contacts in an otherwise large connectivity matrix (Huberman et al., 2010). However, despite their importance for function and development, our understanding as to how the formation of layer-specific connections is controlled

at the molecular and cellular level is still limited. The Drosophila visual system is characterized by a remarkable organization into parallel synaptic Histone demethylase layers ( Hadjieconomou et al., 2011b and Sanes and Zipursky, 2010). The retina consists of approximately 800 ommatidia, each containing eight photoreceptor subtypes (R cells, R1–R8). Their axons extend into the optic lobe, where they connect with target neurons in two ganglia: R1–R6 axons project into the lamina, while R8 and R7 axons terminate in the medulla ( Figure 1A). Neurites in the medulla are organized into ten synaptic layers (M1–M10) with R8 and R7 axons terminating in the layers M3 and M6, respectively. Similarly, target neurons including lamina neurons L1–L5, medulla neurons, and ascending higher-order neurons arborize within one or more of these ten layers in defined patterns ( Fischbach and Dittrich, 1989 and Morante and Desplan, 2008). Medulla layers assemble stepwise during metamorphosis following interdependent cell-type-specific programs.