Population connective field modeling reveals proto-retinotopic visual cortex organization in the prenatal human brain.

Proto-retinotopic organization in the human visual cortex emerges by the 21st week of gestation, with topographic maps present in V2 and V3.

• Why it matters: Understanding when retinotopic maps develop informs knowledge of early brain organization and visual system maturation, which has implications for developmental neuroscience and clinical interventions.
• What they did: Researchers analyzed 871 resting-state fMRI datasets from prenatal to young adults using population connective field modeling to detect topographic connectivity patterns.
• The result: Topographically organized eccentricity and polar angle maps were identified as early as the 21st week of gestation, indicating that retinotopic cortical maps form before visual experience.