Molecular and cellular aspects of patterning sensory neurone connections in the vertebrate nervous system

ABSTRACT Sensory neurones display organizational features that are common to most populations of neurones in the vertebrate nervous system. First, their cell bodies are arranged in discrete groups (the sensory ganglia) each of which has characteristic receptive and projection fields (the peripheral and central target fields, respectively, to which the peripheral and central processes of the neurones grow in development). Second, nerve fibres make specific terminations within each target field; an important feature is that different kinds of sensory receptors in the periphery are connected to the appropriate kinds of second-order neurones in the central nervous system (CNS). Third, nerve fibre terminations in the peripheral and central target fields have a similar topographic order.