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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 27, 2026

Video-oculography in Mice

Video-oculography in Mice

Published on: July 19, 2012

Representational drift gates critical-period plasticity in mouse visual cortex.

Thomas C Brown¹, Aaron W McGee¹

¹Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40202, USA; Department of Translational Neurosciences, University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.

Current Biology : CB

|August 6, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

During a critical developmental period, visual cortex neural circuits exhibit significant "representational drift," adapting to new visual input. This plasticity is reduced in adults but retained in nogo-66 receptor (ngr1) mutant mice.

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Monocular Visual Deprivation and Ocular Dominance Plasticity Measurement in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

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Published on: February 8, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Neuroscience
Visual Cortex Plasticity

Background:

Experience-dependent plasticity in the visual cortex allows tuning to visual input during critical developmental periods.
The neural mechanisms underlying this plasticity, particularly in layer 2/3 excitatory neurons, remain incompletely understood.
Monocular deprivation during critical periods shifts cortical responses, but the cellular basis of this shift is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the dynamics of neural tuning in the visual cortex during the critical period and adulthood.
To compare plasticity in wild-type mice (juvenile and adult) with adult nogo-66 receptor (ngr1) mutant mice that exhibit prolonged critical-period-like plasticity.
To understand the role of representational drift in adapting neural circuits to visual experience.

Main Methods:

Repeated calcium imaging at cellular resolution was used to track neuronal tuning properties.
Populations of excitatory layer 2/3 neurons in the mouse visual cortex were monitored.
Experiments were conducted on juvenile mice, adult mice, and adult ngr1 mutant mice.

Main Results:

Representational drift, the instability of neural population tuning, was significantly higher in juvenile mice during the critical period compared to adults.
Adult ngr1 mutant mice showed representational drift levels comparable to juvenile mice, indicating retained plasticity.
This suggests that representational drift is a key mechanism for adapting neural circuits during sensitive developmental windows.

Conclusions:

Representational drift is a significant feature of visual cortex neural populations during the critical period.
The nogo-66 receptor (ngr1) plays a role in limiting critical-period plasticity in adulthood.
Representational drift facilitates the adaptation of neural circuits to recent visual experience, particularly during development.