Retinotopic and chronotopic organization of goldfish retinal ganglion cell axons throughout the optic nerve.

The organization of the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons within the goldfish optic nerve head and optic nerve was established by labeling select groups of axons either autoradiographically or with cobaltous lysine. In the optic nerve head, the axons are organized eccentrically with respect to their time of development. Axons of older RGCs are located dorsally and those of younger RGCs are located ventrally. The retinal sectors map across the rostrocaudal axis of the optic nerve head, resulting in four dorsoventrally oriented columns that contain, from rostral to caudal, the axons of ventronasal, dorsonasal, dorsotemporal, and ventrotemporal RGCs. Thus, the optic nerve head is organized into orthogonally oriented laminae. One dimension maps the age of the axons and the other maps the retinal sector of the axons' origin. The optic nerve is organized virtually in the same fashion as the optic nerve head. However, glial septa that invade the optic nerve severely distort, but do not eliminate, the columnar organization of the retinal sectors. These septa deflect many RGC axons and disrupt nearest-neighbor relationships. The distortions produced by the glial septa include folding of the columns and distortion of the chronological lamination. However, the glial septa do not extend into the optic foramen. Therefore, a virtually undistorted columnar organization reappears in the optic foramen. Several roles for the glial septa are discussed.