Sensory experience modifies the short-term dynamics of neocortical synapses

Gerald T. Finnerty, Langdon S. E. Roberts and Barry W. Connors ()
Additional contact information
Gerald T. Finnerty: Brown University
Langdon S. E. Roberts: Brown University
Barry W. Connors: Brown University

Nature, 1999, vol. 400, issue 6742, 367-371

Abstract: Abstract Many representations of sensory stimuli in the neocortex are arranged as topographic maps. These cortical maps are not fixed, but show experience-dependent plasticity1,2. For instance, sensory deprivation causes the cortical area representing the deprived sensory input to shrink, and neighbouring spared representations to enlarge, in somatosensory3, auditory4 or visual cortex5. In adolescent and adult animals, changes in cortical maps are most noticeable in the supragranular layers at the junction of deprived and spared cortex6,7,8,9. However, the cellular mechanisms of this experience-dependent plasticity are unclear. Long-term potentiation and depression have been implicated10,11,12, but have not been proven to be necessary or sufficient for cortical map reorganization. Short-term synaptic dynamics have not been considered. We developed a brain slice preparation involving rat whisker barrel cortex in vitro. Here we report that sensory deprivation alters short-term synaptic dynamics in both vertical and horizontal excitatory pathways within the supragranular cortex. Moreover, modifications of horizontal pathways amplify changes in the vertical inputs. Our findings help to explain the functional cortical reorganization that follows persistent changes of sensory experience.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/22553 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6742:d:10.1038_22553

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/22553

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().