Norepinephrine Is Necessary for Experience-Dependent Plasticity in the Developing Mouse Auditory Cortex
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Critical periods are developmental windows during which the stimuli an animal encounters can reshape response properties in the affected system to a profound degree. Despite this window's importance, the neural mechanisms that regulate it are not completely understood. Pioneering studies in visual cortex initially indicated that norepinephrine (NE) permits ocular dominance column plasticity during the critical period, but later research has suggested otherwise. More recent work implicating NE in experience-dependent plasticity in the adult auditory cortex led us to re-examine the role of NE in critical period plasticity. Here, we exposed dopamine β-hydroxylase knock-out (Dbh(-/-)) mice, which lack NE completely from birth, to a biased acoustic environment during the auditory cortical critical period. This manipulation led to a redistribution of best frequencies (BFs) across auditory cortex in our control mice, consistent with prior work. By contrast, Dbh(-/-) mice failed to exhibit the expected redistribution of BFs, even though NE-deficient and NE-competent mice showed comparable auditory cortical organization when reared in a quiet colony environment. These data suggest that while intrinsic tonotopic patterning of auditory cortical circuitry occurs independently from NE, NE is required for critical period plasticity in auditory cortex.
Source: Journal of Neuroscience
Institution: Emory University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: Effects of voluntary exercise on reinstatement of cocaine seeking, GK12 Track 2 PRISM II, The Necessity of Norepinephrine for Auditory Cortical Plasticity, Functional approach to communication sound processing in mouse auditory cortex, Training In Systems And Integrative Biology Neuroscience
OpenAlex ID: W2093213408