Critical Period Plasticity Matches Binocular Orientation Preference in the Visual Cortex

Bor Shuen Wang, Rashmi Sarnaik, Jianhua Cang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

159 Scopus citations

Abstract

Changes of ocular dominance in the visual cortex can be induced by visual manipulations during a critical period in early life. However, the role of critical period plasticity in normal development is unknown. Here we show that at the onset of this time window, the preferred orientations of individual cortical cells in the mouse are mismatched through the two eyes and the mismatch decreases and reaches adult levels by the end of the period. Deprivation of visual experience during this period irreversibly blocks the binocular matching of orientation preference, but has no effect in adulthood. The critical period of binocular matching can be delayed by long-term visual deprivation from birth, like that of ocular dominance plasticity. These results demonstrate that activity-dependent changes induced by normal visual experience during the well-studied critical period serve to match eye-specific inputs in the cortex, thus revealing a physiological role for critical period plasticity during normal development.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)246-256
Number of pages11
JournalNeuron
Volume65
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 28 2010

Funding

We thank Cris Niell for help with visual stimulation and data analyses, and Martha Vitaterna for providing space for dark-rearing mice. We also thank Xiaorong Liu, Tom Bozza, David Ferster, Indira Raman, Garth Fowler, and members of the Cang laboratory for discussions and comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant (EY018621), a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Klingenstein Fellowship Award in Neurosciences, and a Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant to J.C.

Keywords

  • SIGNALING
  • SYSBIO

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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