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Synaptic basis for developmental plasticity in somatosensory cortex.

Elisabeth Foeller1, Daniel E Feldman

  • 1Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

Current Opinion in Neurobiology
|March 17, 2004
PubMed
Summary
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Altered sensory experiences change the brain

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Somatosensory Cortex Plasticity
  • Synaptic Mechanisms

Background:

  • Sensory experience is a key driver of neural map plasticity in the somatosensory cortex.
  • The precise synaptic mechanisms governing this plasticity remain incompletely understood.
  • Recent in vivo studies offer new insights into experience-dependent cortical reorganization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the synaptic mechanisms underlying somatosensory cortex map plasticity.
  • To investigate how altered sensory experience impacts neural circuits in vivo.
  • To identify key molecular and cellular processes involved in cortical map remodeling.

Main Methods:

  • In vivo electrophysiology to record neural activity.
  • Two-photon calcium imaging to observe synaptic dynamics.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Genetic manipulation to target specific neuronal populations.
  • Behavioral paradigms to induce altered sensory experience.

    • Main Results:

    • Demonstrated long-term potentiation and long-term depression at excitatory synapses in response to sensory changes.
    • Revealed competition between lemniscal (barrel) and non-lemniscal (septal) processing streams.
    • Showed regulation in the number of inhibitory synapses correlating with map plasticity.

    Conclusions:

    • Synaptic plasticity, including LTP and LTD, is a fundamental mechanism for sensory map changes.
    • Interplay between different processing streams and inhibitory synapse modulation are critical for cortical plasticity.
    • These findings provide a mechanistic basis for understanding how the brain adapts its body map to sensory input.