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Xue B, Meng X, Kao JPY, Kanold PO. Age-related changes in excitatory and inhibitory intra-cortical circuits in auditory cortex of C57Bl/6 mice. Hear Res 2023; 429:108685. [PMID: 36701895 PMCID: PMC9928889 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Revised: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
A common impairment in aging is age-related hearing loss (presbycusis), which manifests as impaired spectrotemporal processing. Aging is accompanied by alteration in normal inhibitory (GABA) neurotransmission, and changes in excitatory (NMDA and AMPA) synapses in the auditory cortex (ACtx). However, the circuits affected by these synaptic changes remain unknown. Mice of the C57Bl/6J strain show premature age-related hearing loss and changes in functional responses in ACtx. We thus investigated how auditory cortical microcircuits change with age by comparing young (∼ 6 weeks) and aged (>1 year old) C57Bl/6J mice. We performed laser scanning photostimulation (LSPS) combined with whole-cell patch clamp recordings from Layer (L) 2/3 cells in primary auditory cortex (A1) of young adult and aged C57Bl/6J mice. We found that L2/3 cells in aged C57Bl/6J mice display functional hypoconnectivity of both excitatory and inhibitory circuits. Compared to cells from young C57Bl/6 mice, cells from aged C57Bl/6J mice have fewer excitatory connections with weaker connection strength. Whereas young adult and aged C57Bl/6J mice have similar amounts of inhibitory connections, the strength of local inhibition is weaker in the aged group. We confirmed these results by recording miniature excitatory (mEPSCs) and inhibitory synaptic currents (mIPSCs). Our results suggest a specific reduction in excitatory and inhibitory intralaminar cortical circuits in aged C57Bl/6J mice compared with young adult animals. We speculate that these unbalanced changes in cortical circuits contribute to the functional manifestations of age-related hearing loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binghan Xue
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
| | - Xiangying Meng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States; Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
| | - Joseph P Y Kao
- Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology, and Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States
| | - Patrick O Kanold
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States; Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States.
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Brain Macro-Structural Alterations in Aging Rats: A Longitudinal Lifetime Approach. Cells 2023; 12:cells12030432. [PMID: 36766774 PMCID: PMC9914014 DOI: 10.3390/cells12030432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Aging is accompanied by macro-structural alterations in the brain that may relate to age-associated cognitive decline. Animal studies could allow us to study this relationship, but so far it remains unclear whether their structural aging patterns correspond to those in humans. Therefore, by applying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and deformation-based morphometry (DBM), we longitudinally screened the brains of male RccHan:WIST rats for structural changes across their average lifespan. By combining dedicated region of interest (ROI) and voxel-wise approaches, we observed an increase in their global brain volume that was superimposed by divergent local morphologic alterations, with the largest aging effects in early and middle life. We detected a modality-dependent vulnerability to shrinkage across the visual, auditory, and somato-sensory cortical areas, whereas the piriform cortex showed partial resistance. Furthermore, shrinkage emerged in the amygdala, subiculum, and flocculus as well as in frontal, parietal, and motor cortical areas. Strikingly, we noticed the preservation of ectorhinal, entorhinal, retrosplenial, and cingulate cortical regions, which all represent higher-order brain areas and extraordinarily grew with increasing age. We think that the findings of this study will further advance aging research and may contribute to the establishment of interventional approaches to preserve cognitive health in advanced age.
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Park H, Nannt J, Kayser C. Sensory- and memory-related drivers for altered ventriloquism effects and aftereffects in older adults. Cortex 2021; 135:298-310. [PMID: 33422888 PMCID: PMC7856550 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
The manner in which humans exploit multisensory information for subsequent decisions changes with age. Multiple causes for such age-effects are being discussed, including a reduced precision in peripheral sensory representations, changes in cognitive inference about causal relations between sensory cues, and a decline in memory contributing to altered sequential patterns of multisensory behaviour. To dissociate these putative contributions, we investigated how healthy young and older adults integrate audio-visual spatial information within trials (the ventriloquism effect) and between trials (the ventriloquism aftereffect). With both a model-free and (Bayesian) model-based analyses we found that both biases differed between groups. Our results attribute the age-change in the ventriloquism bias to a decline in spatial hearing rather than a change in cognitive processes. This decline in peripheral function, combined with a more prominent influence from preceding responses rather than preceding stimuli in the elderly, can also explain the observed age-effect in the ventriloquism aftereffect. Our results suggest a transition from a sensory-to a behavior-driven influence of past multisensory experience on perceptual decisions with age, due to reduced sensory precision and change in memory capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hame Park
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
| | - Julia Nannt
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Christoph Kayser
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
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Henschke JU, Pakan JM. Disynaptic cerebrocerebellar pathways originating from multiple functionally distinct cortical areas. eLife 2020; 9:59148. [PMID: 32795386 PMCID: PMC7428308 DOI: 10.7554/elife.59148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebral cortex and cerebellum both play important roles in sensorimotor processing, however, precise connections between these major brain structures remain elusive. Using anterograde mono-trans-synaptic tracing, we elucidate cerebrocerebellar pathways originating from primary motor, sensory, and association cortex. We confirm a highly organized topography of corticopontine projections in mice; however, we found no corticopontine projections originating from primary auditory cortex and detail several potential extra-pontine cerebrocerebellar pathways. The cerebellar hemispheres were the major target of resulting disynaptic mossy fiber terminals, but we also found at least sparse cerebrocerebellar projections to every lobule of the cerebellum. Notably, projections originating from association cortex resulted in less laterality than primary sensory/motor cortices. Within molecularly defined cerebellar modules we found spatial overlap of mossy fiber terminals, originating from functionally distinct cortical areas, within crus I, paraflocculus, and vermal regions IV/V and VI - highlighting these regions as potential hubs for multimodal cortical influence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia U Henschke
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany.,German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Janelle Mp Pakan
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany.,German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Universitätsplatz, Magdeburg, Germany
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Macharadze T, Budinger E, Brosch M, Scheich H, Ohl FW, Henschke JU. Early Sensory Loss Alters the Dendritic Branching and Spine Density of Supragranular Pyramidal Neurons in Rodent Primary Sensory Cortices. Front Neural Circuits 2019; 13:61. [PMID: 31611778 PMCID: PMC6773815 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2019.00061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Multisensory integration in primary auditory (A1), visual (V1), and somatosensory cortex (S1) is substantially mediated by their direct interconnections and by thalamic inputs across the sensory modalities. We have previously shown in rodents (Mongolian gerbils) that during postnatal development, the anatomical and functional strengths of these crossmodal and also of sensory matched connections are determined by early auditory, somatosensory, and visual experience. Because supragranular layer III pyramidal neurons are major targets of corticocortical and thalamocortical connections, we investigated in this follow-up study how the loss of early sensory experience changes their dendritic morphology. Gerbils were sensory deprived early in development by either bilateral sciatic nerve transection at postnatal day (P) 5, ototoxic inner hair cell damage at P10, or eye enucleation at P10. Sholl and branch order analyses of Golgi-stained layer III pyramidal neurons at P28, which demarcates the end of the sensory critical period in this species, revealed that visual and somatosensory deprivation leads to a general increase of apical and basal dendritic branching in A1, V1, and S1. In contrast, dendritic branching, particularly of apical dendrites, decreased in all three areas following auditory deprivation. Generally, the number of spines, and consequently spine density, along the apical and basal dendrites decreased in both sensory deprived and non-deprived cortical areas. Therefore, we conclude that the loss of early sensory experience induces a refinement of corticocortical crossmodal and other cortical and thalamic connections by pruning of dendritic spines at the end of the critical period. Based on present and previous own results and on findings from the literature, we propose a scenario for multisensory development following early sensory loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamar Macharadze
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Otto von Guericke University Hospital, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Eike Budinger
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Michael Brosch
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Special Lab Primate Neurobiology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Henning Scheich
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Emeritus Group Lifelong Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Frank W Ohl
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Institute for Biology, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Julia U Henschke
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
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