Loss of one type of sensory input can cause improved functionality of other sensory systems. Whereas this form of plasticity, cross-modal plasticity, is well established, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying it are still unclear. Here, we show that visual deprivation (VD) increases extracellular serotonin in the juvenile rat barrel cortex. This increase in serotonin levels facilitates synaptic strengthening at layer 4 to layer 2/3 synapses within the barrel cortex. Upon VD, whisker experience leads to trafficking of the AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) into these synapses through the activation of ERK and increased phosphorylation of AMPAR subunit GluR1 at the juvenile age when natural whisker experience no longer induces synaptic GluR1 delivery. VD thereby leads to sharpening of the functional whisker-barrel map at layer 2/3. Thus, sensory deprivation of one modality leads to serotonin release in remaining modalities, facilitates GluR1-dependent synaptic strengthening, and refines cortical organization.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.01.016 | DOI Listing |
Elife
December 2024
Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, United States.
Learning alters cortical representations and improves perception. Apical tuft dendrites in cortical layer 1, which are unique in their connectivity and biophysical properties, may be a key site of learning-induced plasticity. We used both two-photon and SCAPE microscopy to longitudinally track tuft-wide calcium spikes in apical dendrites of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in barrel cortex as mice learned a tactile behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Struct Funct
December 2024
The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
Acute cerebral ischemia alters brain network connectivity, leading to notable increases in both anatomical and functional connectivity while observing a reduction in metabolic connectivity. However, alterations of the cerebral blood flow (CBF) based functional connectivity remain unclear. We collected continuous CBF images using laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) technology to monitor ischemic occlusion-reperfusion progression through occlusion of the left carotid artery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
A central topic in neuroscience is the neural coding problem which aims to decipher how the brain signals sensory information through neural activity. Despite significant advancements in this area, the characterisation of information encoding through the precise timing of spikes in the somatosensory cortex is limited. Here, we utilised a comprehensive dataset from previous studies to identify and characterise temporal response patterns of Layer 4 neurons of the rat barrel cortex to five distinct stimuli with varying complexities: Basic, Contact, Whisking, Rough, and Smooth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhysiol Behav
December 2024
Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Electronic address:
Objectives: This study investigated the effects of environmental enrichment (EE) on the behavior and histological alterations of rats with barrel cortex damage.
Methods: Forty-eight adult male rats were divided into Control (Ctrl), Lesion, Lesion+EE.S (Lesion+Standard Enriched Environment, and Lesion+EE.
Sci Rep
December 2024
Laboratorio deAcústica Ultrasonora, Instituto de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay.
The Charcot-Marie-Tooth-1E (CMT1E) disease is typically described as a peripheral neuropathy in humans, causing decreased nerve conduction, spastic paralysis, and tremor. The Trembler-J (TrJ) mice serve as a high fidelity model of this disease. Here, we use functional ultrasound (fUS) and functional connectivity (FC) to analyze TrJ mice's brain activity during sensory stimulation and resting state experiments against wild type (WT) mice - the healthy counterpart.
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