Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA; Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
Cell Rep. 2020 Feb 11;30(6):1982-1994.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.01.031.
The development of neuronal circuits requires both hard-wired gene expression and experience-dependent plasticity. Sensory processing, such as binocular vision, is especially sensitive to perturbations of experience. We investigated the experience-dependent development of the binocular visual cortex at single-cell resolution by using two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice. At eye-opening, the majority of visually responsive neurons are monocular. Binocular neurons emerge later with visual experience and acquire distinct visual response properties. Surprisingly, rather than mirroring the effects of visual deprivation, mice that lack the plasticity gene Arc show increased numbers of binocular neurons and a shift in ocular dominance during development. Strikingly, acutely removing Arc in the adult binocular visual cortex also increases the number of binocular neurons, suggesting that the maintenance of binocular circuits requires ongoing plasticity. Thus, experience-dependent plasticity is critical for the development and maintenance of circuits required to process binocular vision.
神经元回路的发育既需要固定的基因表达，也需要依赖经验的可塑性。感官处理，如双眼视觉，对经验的干扰特别敏感。我们通过在清醒小鼠中使用双光子钙成像来研究单眼视觉皮层的经验依赖性发育。在睁眼时，大多数对视觉有反应的神经元是单眼的。随着视觉经验的增加，双眼神经元会出现得更晚，并获得不同的视觉反应特性。令人惊讶的是，与视觉剥夺的影响相反，缺乏可塑性基因 Arc 的小鼠在发育过程中表现出更多的双眼神经元和眼优势的转变。引人注目的是，在成年双眼视觉皮层中急性去除 Arc 也会增加双眼神经元的数量，这表明维持双眼回路需要持续的可塑性。因此，经验依赖性可塑性对于处理双眼视觉所需的回路的发育和维持至关重要。
