Early visual experience redistributes cFos-tagged neurons toward the cortex while preserving presynaptic spatial stereotypy

Visual experience in cFos promoter-driven reporter mice shifts recruitment of cFos-tagged neurons from cortex toward midbrain and subcortical regions while preserving presynaptic spatial stereotypy.

• Why it matters: Macroscale brain maps are stereotyped, but it is unclear whether this holds at finer spatial scales and how early sensory experience reshapes functional organization across regions.
• What they did: The study permanently labeled cFos-tagged somata or presynaptic terminals during defined early windows, then used serial two-photon tomography with voxel-wise statistics to map brain-wide distributions after the first week of visual experience or deprivation.
• The result: Midbrain and subcortical regions showed greater spatial stereotypy than cortex for both labeled somata and presynaptic terminals, and this stereotypy largely persisted under deprivation despite experience-dependent redistribution of cortical versus midbrain/subcortical recruitment.

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