Peripubertal refinement of the intrinsic and associational circuitry in monkey prefrontal cortex

The peripubertal elimination of axospinous synapses and dendritic spines in monkey prefrontal cortex suggests that this region undergoes substantial reorganization during late postnatal development. Understanding the functional impact of these maturational refinements requires knowledge of the specific presynaptic elements involved in these changes. Two potential sources of these presynaptic terminals are the intrinsic axon collaterals furnished by pyramidal cells within a region, and the associational axons that arise from pyramidal neurons in other cortical regions in the same hemisphere. In the adult, both of these types of axon terminals form synapses predominantly with dendritic spines on other pyramidal neurons, and thus they may be preferentially involved in the peripubertal pruning of axospinous synapses and dendritic spines. In order to test this hypothesis, iontophoretic injections of the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextran amine were made into the superficial layers of areas 9 or 46 of the prefrontal cortex of four prepubertal juvenile (14.9–21.5 months old) and three young adult macaque monkeys. Tangential reconstructions revealed a stripe-like pattern of labeled terminals for intrinsic and associational projections in both juvenile and adult animals. During puberty, the intrinsic circuitry underwent extensive topographic refinement, as demonstrated by a 42.7% decrease in stripe area and a 28.0% increase in gap distance between stripes. Furthermore, the mediolateral tangential spread of labeled stripes around the injection site decreased by 27.0%. In contrast, topographic refinement was not evident in the associational circuitry. In both layers 1 and 3, the densities of varicosities and branch points on labeled axons decreased by about 50% in intrinsic stripes during puberty, but only by approximately 30% in associational stripes.

These findings suggest that the spatial form and magnitude of peripubertal refinements in prefrontal cortical connectivity may be specific for certain neural elements.