Editorial: Spontaneous Activity in Sensory Systems

[...]Pratt et al. examine the role of retinal waves and the development of the retinotectal projections in an evolutionary context, providing predictions for studies of retinal projections in mammalian systems to the superior colliculus (SC) and LGN. In their article, Leighton and Lohman provide an extensive review of the role of spontaneous activity in the wiring of the developing auditory, somatosensory and visual systems of rodents, and further integrate these with synaptic plasticity mechanisms. [...]early-life perturbations are examined by Shoykhet and Middleton, who describe alterations to spontaneous activity in the developing somatosensory and motor system of the rat thalamocortical system, following cardiac arrest-induced global brain hypoxia-ischemia, and they suggest that modulation of the abnormally induced spontaneous activity patterns could improve functions in cardiac arrest survivors.