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Related Experiment Videos

Mechanisms underlying rapid experience-dependent plasticity in the human visual cortex.

B Boroojerdi1, F Battaglia, W Muellbacher

  • 1Human Cortical Physiology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|December 6, 2001
PubMed
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Visual deprivation rapidly increases visual cortex excitability. Blocking gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA), and cholinergic receptors with specific drugs prevented these plastic changes in humans.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Neuroscience
  • Neuroplasticity

Background:

  • Visual deprivation triggers rapid increases in visual cortex excitability.
  • This heightened excitability may enhance spatial memory consolidation and lower visual recognition thresholds.
  • Previous animal studies implicated gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA), and cholinergic receptors in visual cortex plasticity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the involvement of specific neurotransmitter receptors in rapid, experience-dependent plasticity of the human visual cortex.
  • To determine if blocking GABAergic, NMDA, and cholinergic pathways affects visual cortex excitability changes induced by light deprivation.

Main Methods:

  • A pharmacological approach was employed in human participants.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Drugs targeting GABA(A) receptors (lorazepam), NMDA receptors (dextromethorphan), and muscarinic cholinergic receptors (scopolamine) were administered.
  • The effects of these drugs on light-deprivation-induced plastic changes in the visual cortex were assessed.

    • Main Results:

    • Lorazepam, dextromethorphan, and scopolamine each blocked the rapid plastic changes observed following visual deprivation.
    • These findings indicate that GABAergic, NMDA, and cholinergic systems are crucial for these adaptive changes in the human visual cortex.

    Conclusions:

    • Rapid plasticity in the human visual cortex following visual deprivation involves GABA, NMDA, and cholinergic receptor systems.
    • Pharmacological modulation of these receptors can inhibit experience-dependent changes in visual cortex excitability.