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Huang Y, Liu Z, Wang M, Gao L, Wu Y, Hu J, Zhang Z, Yan FF, Deng D, Huang CB, Yu M. Cortical Reorganization After Optical Alignment in Strabismic Patients Outside of Critical Period. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2023; 64:5. [PMID: 37535007 PMCID: PMC10408769 DOI: 10.1167/iovs.64.11.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE To measure visual crowding, an essential bottleneck on object recognition and reliable psychophysical index of cortex organization, in older children and adults with horizontal concomitant strabismus before and after strabismus surgery. METHODS Using real-time eye tracking to ensure gaze-contingent display, we examined the peripheral visual crowding effects in older children and adults with horizontal concomitant strabismus but without amblyopia before and after strabismus surgery. Patients were asked to discriminate the orientation of the central tumbling E target letter with flankers arranged along the radial or tangential axis in the nasal or temporal hemifield at different eccentricities (5° or 10°). The critical spacing value, which is the minimum space between the target and the flankers required for correct discrimination, was obtained for comparisons before and after strabismus surgery. RESULTS Twelve individuals with exotropia (6 males, 21.75 ± 7.29 years, mean ± SD) and 15 individuals with esotropia (6 males, 24.13 ± 5.96 years) participated in this study. We found that strabismic individuals showed significantly larger critical spacing with nasotemporal asymmetry along the radial axis that related to the strabismus pattern, with exotropes exhibiting stronger temporal field crowding and esotropes exhibiting stronger nasal field crowding before surgical alignment. After surgery, the critical spacing was reduced and rebalanced between the nasal and temporal hemifields. Furthermore, the postoperative recovery of stereopsis was associated with the extent of nasotemporal balance of critical spacing. CONCLUSIONS We find that optical realignment (i.e., strabismus surgery) can normalize the enlarged visual crowding effects, a reliable psychophysical index of cortical organization, in the peripheral visual field of older children and adults with strabismus and rebalance the nasotemporal asymmetry of crowding, promoting the recovery of postoperative stereopsis. Our results indicated a potential of experience-dependent cortical organization after axial alignment even for individuals who are out of the critical period of visual development, illuminating the capacity and limitations of optics on sensory plasticity and emphasizing the importance of ocular correction for clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiru Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Zitian Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Mingqin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Le Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yanyan Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Jingyi Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Zhenyu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Fang-Fang Yan
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Daming Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Chang-Bing Huang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Minbin Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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Experience-dependent functional plasticity and visual response selectivity of surviving subplate neurons in the mouse visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2217011120. [PMID: 36812195 PMCID: PMC9992851 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217011120] [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: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Subplate neurons are early-born cortical neurons that transiently form neural circuits during perinatal development and guide cortical maturation. Thereafter, most subplate neurons undergo cell death, while some survive and renew their target areas for synaptic connections. However, the functional properties of the surviving subplate neurons remain largely unknown. This study aimed to characterize the visual responses and experience-dependent functional plasticity of layer 6b (L6b) neurons, the remnants of subplate neurons, in the primary visual cortex (V1). Two-photon Ca2+ imaging was performed in V1 of awake juvenile mice. L6b neurons showed broader tunings for orientation, direction, and spatial frequency than did layer 2/3 (L2/3) and L6a neurons. In addition, L6b neurons showed lower matching of preferred orientation between the left and right eyes compared with other layers. Post hoc 3D immunohistochemistry confirmed that the majority of recorded L6b neurons expressed connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a subplate neuron marker. Moreover, chronic two-photon imaging showed that L6b neurons exhibited ocular dominance (OD) plasticity by monocular deprivation during critical periods. The OD shift to the open eye depended on the response strength to the stimulation of the eye to be deprived before starting monocular deprivation. There were no significant differences in visual response selectivity prior to monocular deprivation between the OD changed and unchanged neuron groups, suggesting that OD plasticity can occur in L6b neurons showing any response features. In conclusion, our results provide strong evidence that surviving subplate neurons exhibit sensory responses and experience-dependent plasticity at a relatively late stage of cortical development.
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Nishio N, Hayashi K, Ishikawa AW, Yoshimura Y. The role of early visual experience in the development of spatial-frequency preference in the primary visual cortex. J Physiol 2021; 599:4131-4152. [PMID: 34275157 DOI: 10.1113/jp281463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
KEY POINTS The mature functioning of the primary visual cortex depends on postnatal visual experience, while the orientation/direction preference is established just after eye-opening, independently of visual experience. In this study, we find that visual experience is required for the normal development of spatial-frequency (SF) preference in mouse primary visual cortex. We show that age- and experience-dependent shifts in optimal SFs towards higher frequencies occurred similarly in excitatory neurons and parvalbumin-positive interneurons. We also show that some excitatory and parvalbumin-positive neurons preferentially responded to visual stimuli consisting of very high SFs and posterior directions, and that the preference was established at earlier developmental stages than the SF preference in the standard frequency range. These results suggest that early visual experience is required for the development of SF representation and shed light on the experience-dependent developmental mechanisms underlying visual cortical functions. ABSTRACT Early visual experience is crucial for the maturation of visual cortical functions. It has been demonstrated that the orientation and direction preferences in individual neurons of the primary visual cortex are well established immediately after eye-opening. The postnatal development of spatial frequency (SF) tuning and its dependence on visual experience, however, has not been thoroughly quantified. In this study, macroscopic imaging with flavoprotein autofluorescence revealed that the optimal SFs shift towards higher frequency values during normal development in mouse primary visual cortex. This developmental shift was impaired by binocular deprivation during the sensitive period, postnatal 3 weeks (PW3) to PW6. Furthermore, two-photon Ca2+ imaging revealed that the developmental shift of the optimal SFs, depending on visual experience, concurrently occurs in excitatory neurons and parvalbumin-positive inhibitory interneurons (PV neurons). In addition, some excitatory and PV neurons exhibited a preference for visual stimuli consisting of particularly high SFs and posterior directions at relatively early developmental stages; this preference was not affected by binocular deprivation. Thus, there may be two distinct developmental mechanisms for the establishment of SF preference depending on the frequency values. After PW3, SF tuning for neurons tuned to standard frequency ranges was sharper in excitatory neurons and slightly broader in PV neurons, leading to considerably attenuated SF tuning in PV neurons compared to excitatory neurons by PW5. Our findings suggest that early visual experience is far more important than orientation/direction selectivity for the development of the neural representation of the diverse SFs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nana Nishio
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan
| | - Kenji Hayashi
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.,Department of Physiological Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Okazaki, Japan
| | - Ayako Wendy Ishikawa
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.,Department of Physiological Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Okazaki, Japan
| | - Yumiko Yoshimura
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.,Department of Physiological Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Okazaki, Japan
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Hagihara KM, Ishikawa AW, Yoshimura Y, Tagawa Y, Ohki K. Long-Range Interhemispheric Projection Neurons Show Biased Response Properties and Fine-Scale Local Subnetworks in Mouse Visual Cortex. Cereb Cortex 2020; 31:1307-1315. [PMID: 33063102 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2020] [Revised: 08/20/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Integration of information processed separately in distributed brain regions is essential for brain functions. This integration is enabled by long-range projection neurons, and further, concerted interactions between long-range projections and local microcircuits are crucial. It is not well known, however, how this interaction is implemented in cortical circuits. Here, to decipher this logic, using callosal projection neurons (CPNs) in layer 2/3 of the mouse visual cortex as a model of long-range projections, we found that CPNs exhibited distinct response properties and fine-scale local connectivity patterns. In vivo 2-photon calcium imaging revealed that CPNs showed a higher ipsilateral (to their somata) eye preference, and that CPN pairs showed stronger signal/noise correlation than random pairs. Slice recordings showed CPNs were preferentially connected to CPNs, demonstrating the existence of projection target-dependent fine-scale subnetworks. Collectively, our results suggest that long-range projection target predicts response properties and local connectivity of cortical projection neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenta M Hagihara
- Department of Molecular Physiology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.,Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel 4058, Switzerland
| | - Ayako Wendy Ishikawa
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.,Department of Physiological Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.,Keio University School of Medicine, Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, 160-8582, Japan
| | - Yumiko Yoshimura
- Division of Visual Information Processing, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.,Department of Physiological Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan
| | - Yoshiaki Tagawa
- Department of Biophysics, Kyoto University Graduate School of Science, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.,Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-8544, Japan.,CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Kenichi Ohki
- Department of Molecular Physiology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.,CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.,Department of Physiology, The University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.,International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.,Institute for AI and Beyond, The University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
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Park WJ, Fine I. New insights into cortical development and plasticity: from molecules to behavior. CURRENT OPINION IN PHYSIOLOGY 2020; 16:50-60. [PMID: 32923755 PMCID: PMC7480792 DOI: 10.1016/j.cophys.2020.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The human brain contains 100 billion neurons, and each neuron can have up to 200,000 connections to other neurons. Recent advancements in neuroscience-ranging from molecular studies in animal models to behavioral studies in humans-have given us deeper insights into the development of this extraordinarily intricate system. Studies show a complex interaction between biological predispositions and environment; while the gross neuroanatomy and low-level functions develop early prior to receiving environmental inputs, functional selectivity is shaped through experience, governed by the maturation of local excitatory and inhibitory circuits and synaptic plasticity during sensitive periods early in development. Plasticity does not end with the closing of the early sensitive period - the environment continues to play an important role in learning throughout the lifespan. Recent work delineating the cascade of events that initiates, controls and ends sensitive periods, offers new hope of eventually being able to remediate various clinical conditions by selectively reopening plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Woon Ju Park
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Ione Fine
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
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