Garraghty P E, LaChica E A, Kaas J H
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240.
Somatosens Mot Res. 1991;8(4):347-54. doi: 10.3109/08990229109144757.
When a portion of primary somatosensory cortex is deprived of its normal inputs by peripheral nerve transection, intact skin surfaces represented in surrounding cortex come to activate the deprived zone within 2 months. We found that this cortical reorganization was accompanied by a marked decrease in the antibody staining of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) within the deprived sector of cortex in monkeys surviving nerve injury for 2-5 months. In contrast, there were no apparent changes in cytochrome oxidase reactivity in the deprived cortex of these same monkeys. Reduced levels of inhibition could allow previously unexpressed connections to become potent. Thus, the regulation of the expression of GABA appears to be one mechanism for maintaining and altering cortical representations.
当初级体感皮层的一部分因外周神经横断而被剥夺其正常输入时，周围皮层所代表的完整皮肤表面会在2个月内激活被剥夺区域。我们发现，在神经损伤存活2 - 5个月的猴子中，这种皮层重组伴随着皮层被剥夺区域内γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）抗体染色的显著减少。相比之下，这些猴子被剥夺皮层中的细胞色素氧化酶反应性没有明显变化。抑制水平的降低可能会使以前未表达的连接变得有效。因此，GABA表达的调节似乎是维持和改变皮层表征的一种机制。
