Visual experience sculpts whole-cortex spontaneous infraslow activity patterns through an Arc-dependent mechanism

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Systems Neuroscience

Background:

• Visual experience during critical periods is vital for sensory cortex development.
• The impact of early visual experience on spontaneous brain activity organization is less understood.
• Spontaneous infraslow activity (ISA) in the brain exhibits organized spatiotemporal patterns and is plastic.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how early visual experience influences the systems-level organization of spontaneous brain activity.
• To examine the effects of monocular and binocular visual deprivation on ISA patterns within and across cortical networks during critical periods.

Main Methods:

• Utilized wide-field optical intrinsic signal imaging in mice to analyze whole-cortex spontaneous ISA patterns.
• Employed monocular or binocular lid suturing to induce visual deprivation during critical developmental periods.
• Assessed ISA correlation and latency patterns within and across cortical resting-state networks.

Main Results:

• Monocular visual deprivation reduced homotopic correlation within the visual network.
• Binocular visual deprivation increased visual homotopic correlation and induced anti-correlation with extravisual networks, indicating cross-modal plasticity.
• These network-level changes were significantly reduced in mice lacking the Arc gene, crucial for synaptic plasticity.

Conclusions:

• Critical period visual experience induces global changes in spontaneous ISA relationships within and across brain networks.
• These experience-dependent network changes are mediated by an Arc-dependent mechanism.
• Findings highlight the plasticity of brain network organization in response to early sensory experience.