Experience Mediated Development of the Visual Cortex Vascularization

The vascular system of every organ is composed of an afferent arterial system that ensures metabolic support, and an efferent venous drainage system that evacuates the substances produced by the organ as well as the catabolites that are generated. Both systems communicate via a terminal network in which the arterial capillaries anastomose with the venous ones. Vascular organisation depends on the structure and function of each organ, thus there is not a general vascular system, but an organ-specific one. The large blood vessels supplying the brain are the carotid and vertebral arteries, which then branch to form the network of pial arteries covering the surface of the brain. In the cerebral cortex, the pial vessels branch into smaller arteries, which enter the brain tissue itself and are called the penetrating arterioles. These arterioles branch into secondary and tertiary arterioles, until they reach the smallest vessel supplying the brain tissue, the capillary, which is only wide enough for one red blood cell to pass through it at a time. The capillaries then feed into the venules and veins, which carry the blood away [1].