The latest issue of Science magazine has an article explaining how the retinotopic map is built during the development of the eye. The authors show that glial cells that ensheath axons relay cues from photoreceptors to induce the differentiation of the photoreceptor target field—the so-called lamina neurons. Thus, glia can play an instructive role in differentiation, helping to direct the spatiotemporal patterning of neurogenesis.
Science 01 Sep 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6354, pp. 886–891, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan3174
Another recent article demonstrated that there is no retinotopic map further up in the visual system where object recognition takes place.
Science 18 Aug 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6352, pp. 687-692, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan4800
