Functional Neurobiology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Curr Biol. 2010 Aug 24;20(16):1464-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.06.057. Epub 2010 Jul 30.
Experience-driven neuronal plasticity allows the brain to adapt its functional connectivity to recent sensory input. Here we use binocular rivalry, an experimental paradigm in which conflicting images are presented to the individual eyes, to demonstrate plasticity in the neuronal mechanisms that convert visual information from two separated retinas into single perceptual experiences. Perception during binocular rivalry tended to initially consist of alternations between exclusive representations of monocularly defined images, but upon prolonged exposure, mixture percepts became more prevalent. The completeness of suppression, reflected in the incidence of mixture percepts, plausibly reflects the strength of inhibition that likely plays a role in binocular rivalry. Recovery of exclusivity was possible but required highly specific binocular stimulation. Documenting the prerequisites for these observed changes in perceptual exclusivity, our experiments suggest experience-driven plasticity at interocular inhibitory synapses, driven by the correlated activity (and also the lack thereof) of neurons representing the conflicting stimuli. This form of plasticity is consistent with a previously proposed but largely untested anti-Hebbian learning mechanism for inhibitory synapses in vision. Our results implicate experience-driven plasticity as one governing principle in the neuronal organization of binocular vision.
经验驱动的神经元可塑性使大脑能够适应其功能连接以适应最近的感官输入。在这里，我们使用双眼竞争，这是一种将相互冲突的图像呈现给个体眼睛的实验范式，来证明将来自两个分开的视网膜的视觉信息转换为单一感知体验的神经元机制的可塑性。在双眼竞争期间，知觉最初倾向于交替出现对单独定义的图像的独占表示，但是经过长时间的暴露，混合知觉变得更为普遍。抑制的完全性（反映在混合知觉的发生率中）很可能反映了在双眼竞争中起作用的抑制强度。但是，需要高度特定的双眼刺激才能恢复独占性。记录这些观察到的知觉独占性变化的前提条件，我们的实验表明，由代表冲突刺激的神经元的相关活动（以及缺乏相关活动）驱动的，眼间抑制性突触的经验驱动可塑性。这种形式的可塑性与先前提出但在很大程度上未经测试的视觉抑制性突触的抗赫布学习机制一致。我们的结果表明，经验驱动的可塑性是双眼视觉的神经元组织的一个控制原则。
