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Chen CC, Brumberg JC. Sensory Experience as a Regulator of Structural Plasticity in the Developing Whisker-to-Barrel System. Front Cell Neurosci 2022; 15:770453. [PMID: 35002626 PMCID: PMC8739903 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2021.770453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Cellular structures provide the physical foundation for the functionality of the nervous system, and their developmental trajectory can be influenced by the characteristics of the external environment that an organism interacts with. Historical and recent works have determined that sensory experiences, particularly during developmental critical periods, are crucial for information processing in the brain, which in turn profoundly influence neuronal and non-neuronal cortical structures that subsequently impact the animals' behavioral and cognitive outputs. In this review, we focus on how altering sensory experience influences normal/healthy development of the central nervous system, particularly focusing on the cerebral cortex using the rodent whisker-to-barrel system as an illustrative model. A better understanding of structural plasticity, encompassing multiple aspects such as neuronal, glial, and extra-cellular domains, provides a more integrative view allowing for a deeper appreciation of how all aspects of the brain work together as a whole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Chien Chen
- Department of Psychology, Queens College City University of New York, Flushing, NY, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, Duke Kunshan University, Suzhou, China
| | - Joshua C Brumberg
- Department of Psychology, Queens College City University of New York, Flushing, NY, United States.,The Biology (Neuroscience) and Psychology (Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience) PhD Programs, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, NY, United States
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2
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Yee AX, Hsu YT, Chen L. A metaplasticity view of the interaction between homeostatic and Hebbian plasticity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2017; 372:rstb.2016.0155. [PMID: 28093549 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/25/2016] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity are two major forms of plasticity in the nervous system: Hebbian plasticity provides a synaptic basis for associative learning, whereas homeostatic plasticity serves to stabilize network activity. While achieving seemingly very different goals, these two types of plasticity interact functionally through overlapping elements in their respective mechanisms. Here, we review studies conducted in the mammalian central nervous system, summarize known circuit and molecular mechanisms of homeostatic plasticity, and compare these mechanisms with those that mediate Hebbian plasticity. We end with a discussion of 'local' homeostatic plasticity and the potential role of local homeostatic plasticity as a form of metaplasticity that modulates a neuron's future capacity for Hebbian plasticity.This article is part of the themed issue 'Integrating Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ada X Yee
- Departments of Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5453, USA
| | - Yu-Tien Hsu
- Departments of Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5453, USA
| | - Lu Chen
- Departments of Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5453, USA
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Tjia M, Yu X, Jammu LS, Lu J, Zuo Y. Pyramidal Neurons in Different Cortical Layers Exhibit Distinct Dynamics and Plasticity of Apical Dendritic Spines. Front Neural Circuits 2017; 11:43. [PMID: 28674487 PMCID: PMC5474458 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2017.00043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2016] [Accepted: 05/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The mammalian cerebral cortex is typically organized in six layers containing multiple types of neurons, with pyramidal neurons (PNs) being the most abundant. PNs in different cortical layers have distinct morphology, physiology and functional roles in neural circuits. Therefore, their development and synaptic plasticity may also differ. Using in vivo transcranial two-photon microscopy, we followed the structural dynamics of dendritic spines on apical dendrites of layer (L) 2/3 and L5 PNs at different developmental stages. We show that the density and dynamics of spines are significantly higher in L2/3 PNs than L5 PNs in both adolescent (1 month old) and adult (4 months old) mice. While spine density of L5 PNs decreases during adolescent development due to a higher rate of spine elimination than formation, there is no net change in the spine density along apical dendrites of L2/3 PNs over this period. In addition, experiences exert differential impact on the dynamics of apical dendritic spines of PNs resided in different cortical layers. While motor skill learning promotes spine turnover on L5 PNs in the motor cortex, it does not change the spine dynamics on L2/3 PNs. In addition, neonatal sensory deprivation decreases the spine density of both L2/3 and L5 PNs, but leads to opposite changes in spine dynamics among these two populations of neurons in adolescence. In summary, our data reveal distinct dynamics and plasticity of apical dendritic spines on PNs in different layers in the living mouse cortex, which may arise from their distinct functional roles in cortical circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Tjia
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, United States
| | - Xinzhu Yu
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, United States
| | - Lavpreet S Jammu
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, United States
| | - Ju Lu
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, United States
| | - Yi Zuo
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, United States
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Ghoshal A, Lustig B, Popescu M, Ebner F, Pouget P. Unilateral whisker trimming in newborn rats alters neuronal coincident discharge among mature barrel cortex neurons. J Neurophysiol 2014; 112:1925-35. [PMID: 25057142 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00562.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
It is known that sensory deprivation, including postnatal whisker trimming, can lead to severe deficits in the firing rate properties of cortical neurons. Recent results indicate that development of synchronous discharge among cortical neurons is also activity influenced, and that correlated discharge is significantly impaired following loss of bilateral sensory input in rats. Here we investigate whether unilateral whisker trimming (unilateral deprivation or UD) after birth interferes in the same way with the development of synchronous discharge in cortex. We measured the coincidence of spikes among pairs of neurons recorded under urethane anesthesia in one whisker barrel field deprived by trimming all contralateral whiskers for 60 days after birth (UD), and in untrimmed controls (CON). In the septal columns around barrels, UD significantly increased the coincident discharge among cortical neurons compared with CON, most notably in layers II/III. In contrast, synchronous discharge was normal between layer IV UD barrel neurons: i.e., not different from CON. Thus, while bilateral whisker deprivation (BD) produced a global deficit in the development of synchrony in layer IV, UD did not block the development of synchrony between neurons in layer IV barrels and increased synchrony within septal circuits. We conclude that changes in synchronous discharge after UD are unexpectedly different from those recorded after BD, and we speculate that this effect may be due to the driven activity from active commissural inputs arising from the contralateral hemisphere that received normal activity levels during postnatal development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayan Ghoshal
- Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative & Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee;
| | - Brian Lustig
- Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative & Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | | | - Ford Ebner
- Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative & Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Pierre Pouget
- CM, INSERM UMRS 975, CNRS 7225, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
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Mowery TM, Kotak VC, Sanes DH. Transient Hearing Loss Within a Critical Period Causes Persistent Changes to Cellular Properties in Adult Auditory Cortex. Cereb Cortex 2014; 25:2083-94. [PMID: 24554724 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory deprivation can induce profound changes to central processing during developmental critical periods (CPs), and the recovery of normal function is maximal if the sensory input is restored during these epochs. Therefore, we asked whether mild and transient hearing loss (HL) during discrete CPs could induce changes to cortical cellular physiology. Electrical and inhibitory synaptic properties were obtained from auditory cortex pyramidal neurons using whole-cell recordings after bilateral earplug insertion or following earplug removal. Varying the age of HL onset revealed brief CPs of vulnerability for membrane and firing properties, as well as, inhibitory synaptic currents. These CPs closed 1 week after ear canal opening on postnatal day (P) 18. To examine whether the cellular properties could recover from HL, earplugs were removed prior to (P17) or after (P23), the closure of these CPs. The earlier age of hearing restoration led to greater recovery of cellular function, but firing rate remained disrupted. When earplugs were removed after the closure of these CPs, several changes persisted into adulthood. Therefore, long-lasting cellular deficits that emerge from transient deprivation during a CP may contribute to delayed acquisition of auditory skills in children who experience temporary HL.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dan H Sanes
- Center for Neural Science Department of Biology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
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Chen CC, Bajnath A, Brumberg JC. The impact of development and sensory deprivation on dendritic protrusions in the mouse barrel cortex. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014; 25:1638-53. [PMID: 24408954 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Dendritic protrusions (spines and filopodia) are structural indicators of synapses that have been linked to neuronal learning and memory through their morphological alterations induced by development and experienced-dependent activities. Although previous studies have demonstrated that depriving sensory experience leads to structural changes in neocortical organization, the more subtle effects on dendritic protrusions remain unclear, mostly due to focus on only one specific cell type and/or age of manipulation. Here, we show that sensory deprivation induced by whisker trimming influences the dendritic protrusions of basilar dendrites located in thalamocortical recipient lamina (IV and VI) of the mouse barrel cortex in a layer-specific manner. Following 1 month of whisker trimming after birth, the density of dendritic protrusions increased in layer IV, but decreased in layer VI. Whisker regrowth for 1 month returned protrusion densities to comparable level of age-matched controls in layer VI, but not in layer IV. In adults, chronic sensory deprivation led to an increase in protrusion densities in layer IV, but not in layer VI. In addition, chronic pharmacological blockade of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) increased protrusion density in both layers IV and VI, which returned to the control level after 1 month of drug withdrawal. Our data reveal that different cortical layers respond to chronic sensory deprivation in different ways, with more pronounced effects during developmental critical periods than adulthood. We also show that chronically blocking NMDARs activity during developmental critical period also influences the protrusion density and morphology in the cerebral cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Adesh Bajnath
- Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Joshua C Brumberg
- Neuropsychology Subprogram Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY 10016, USA Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY 11367, USA
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Whitt JL, Petrus E, Lee HK. Experience-dependent homeostatic synaptic plasticity in neocortex. Neuropharmacology 2013; 78:45-54. [PMID: 23466332 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2013.02.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2012] [Revised: 02/18/2013] [Accepted: 02/20/2013] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The organism's ability to adapt to the changing sensory environment is due in part to the ability of the nervous system to change with experience. Input and synapse specific Hebbian plasticity, such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), are critical for sculpting the nervous system to wire its circuit in tune with the environment and for storing memories. However, these synaptic plasticity mechanisms are innately unstable and require another mode of plasticity that maintains homeostasis to allow neurons to function within a desired dynamic range. Several modes of homeostatic adaptation are known, some of which work at the synaptic level. This review will focus on the known mechanisms of experience-induced homeostatic synaptic plasticity in the neocortex and their potential function in sensory cortex plasticity. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica L Whitt
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The Zanvyl-Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Emily Petrus
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The Zanvyl-Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Hey-Kyoung Lee
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The Zanvyl-Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
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Ikezoe K, Tamura H, Kimura F, Fujita I. Decorrelation of sensory-evoked neuronal responses in rat barrel cortex during postnatal development. Neurosci Res 2012; 73:312-20. [PMID: 22677628 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2012.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2012] [Revised: 05/22/2012] [Accepted: 05/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The ability to detect and discriminate sensory stimuli greatly improves with age. To better understand the neural basis of perceptual development, we studied the postnatal development of sensory responses in cortical neurons. Specifically, we analyzed neuronal responses to single-whisker deflections in the posteromedial barrel subfield (PMBSF) of the rat primary somatosensory cortex. Responses of PMBSF neurons showed a long onset latency and duration in the first postnatal week, but became fast and transient over the next few weeks. Trial-by-trial variations of single neuron responses did not change systematically with age, whereas the covariation of responses across trials between neurons (noise correlation) was high on postnatal day 5-6 (P5-6), and gradually decreased with age to near zero by P30-31. Computational analyses showed that pooled responses of multiple neurons became more reliable across stimulus trials with age. The period over which these changes occurred corresponds to the period when rats develop a full set of exploratory whisking behavior. We suggest that reduced noise correlation across a population of neurons, in addition to sharpening the temporal characteristics of single neuron responses, may help improve behavioral performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koji Ikezoe
- Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Engineering Science and Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
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Chen CC, Tam D, Brumberg JC. Sensory deprivation differentially impacts the dendritic development of pyramidal versus non-pyramidal neurons in layer 6 of mouse barrel cortex. Brain Struct Funct 2012; 217:435-46. [PMID: 21861159 PMCID: PMC3737741 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-011-0342-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2010] [Accepted: 08/05/2011] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Early postnatal sensory experience can have profound impacts on the structure and function of cortical circuits affecting behavior. Using the mouse whisker-to-barrel system we chronically deprived animals of normal sensory experience by bilaterally trimming their whiskers every other day from birth for the first postnatal month. Brain tissue was then processed for Golgi staining and neurons in layer 6 of barrel cortex were reconstructed in three dimensions. Dendritic and somatic parameters were compared between sensory-deprived and normal sensory experience groups. Results demonstrated that layer 6 non-pyramidal neurons in the chronically deprived group showed an expansion of their dendritic arbors. The pyramidal cells responded to sensory deprivation with increased somatic size and basilar dendritic arborization but overall decreased apical dendritic parameters. In sum, sensory deprivation impacted on the neuronal architecture of pyramidal and non-pyramidal neurons in layer 6, which may provide a substrate for observed physiological and behavioral changes resulting from whisker trimming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Chien Chen
- Neuropsychology Doctoral Subprogram, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Danny Tam
- Neuropsychology Doctoral Subprogram, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Joshua C. Brumberg
- Neuropsychology Doctoral Subprogram, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11367, USA
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Iurilli G, Benfenati F, Medini P. Loss of visually driven synaptic responses in layer 4 regular-spiking neurons of rat visual cortex in absence of competing inputs. Cereb Cortex 2011; 22:2171-81. [PMID: 22047965 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhr304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Monocular deprivation (MD) during development shifts the ocular preference of primary visual cortex (V1) neurons by depressing closed-eye responses and potentiating open-eye responses. As these 2 processes are temporally and mechanistically distinct, we tested whether loss of responsiveness occurs also in absence of competing inputs. We thus compared the effects of long-term MD in layer 4 regular-spiking pyramidal neurons (L4Ns) of binocular and monocular V1 (bV1 and mV1) with whole-cell recordings. In bV1, input depression was larger than potentiation, and the ocular dominance shift was larger for spike outputs. MD-but not retinal inactivation with tetrodotoxin-caused a comparable loss of synaptic and spike responsiveness in mV1, which is innervated only by the deprived eye. Conversely, brief MD depressed synaptic responses only in bV1. MD-driven depression in mV1 was accompanied by a proportional reduction of visual thalamic inputs, as assessed upon pharmacological silencing of intracortical transmission. Finally, sub- and suprathreshold responsiveness was similarly degraded in L4Ns of bV1 upon complete deprivation of patterned vision through a binocular deprivation period of comparable length. Thus, loss of synaptic inputs from the deprived eye occurs also in absence of competition in the main thalamorecipient lamina, albeit at a slower pace.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giuliano Iurilli
- Neuroscience and Brain Technologies Department, Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy
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Cross-sensory modulation of primary sensory cortex is developmentally regulated by early sensory experience. J Neurosci 2011; 31:2526-36. [PMID: 21325520 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5547-10.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The presence of cross-sensory influences on neuronal responses in primary sensory cortex has been observed previously using several different methods. To test this idea in rat S1 barrel cortex, we hypothesized that auditory stimuli combined with whisker stimulation ("cross-sensory" stimuli) may modify response levels to whisker stimulation. Since the brain has been shown to have a remarkable capacity to be modified by early postnatal sensory activity, manipulating postnatal sensory experiences would be predicted to alter the degree of cross-sensory interactions. To test these ideas, we raised rats with or without whisker deprivation and with or without postnatal exposure to repeated auditory clicks. We recorded extracellular responses under urethane anesthesia from barrel cortex neurons in response to principal whisker stimulation alone, to auditory click stimulation alone, or to a cross-sensory stimulus. The responses were compared statistically across different stimulus conditions and across different rearing groups. Barrel neurons did not generate action potentials in response to auditory click stimuli alone in any rearing group. However, in cross-sensory stimulus conditions the response magnitude was facilitated in the 0-15 ms post-whisker-stimulus epoch in all rearing conditions, whereas modulation of response magnitude in a later 15-30 ms post-whisker-stimulus epoch was significantly different in each rearing condition. The most significant cross-sensory effect occurred in rats that were simultaneously whisker deprived and click reared. We conclude that there is a modulatory type of cross-sensory auditory influence on normal S1 barrel cortex, which can be enhanced by early postnatal experiences.
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