Structural Plasticity Underlies Experience-Dependent Functional Plasticity of Cortical Circuits
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: The stabilization of new spines in the barrel cortex is enhanced after whisker trimming, but its relationship to experience-dependent plasticity is unclear. Here we show that in wild-type mice, whisker potentiation and spine stabilization are most pronounced for layer 5 neurons at the border between spared and deprived barrel columns. In homozygote alphaCaMKII-T286A mice, which lack experience-dependent potentiation of responses to spared whiskers, there is no increase in new spine stabilization at the border between barrel columns after whisker trimming. Our data provide a causal link between new spine synapses and plasticity of adult cortical circuits and suggest that alphaCaMKII autophosphorylation plays a role in the stabilization but not formation of new spines.
Source: Journal of Neuroscience
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health, Medical Research Council, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
OpenAlex ID: W2012985621