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Long-term depression induced by sensory deprivation during cortical map plasticity in vivo

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 291–299 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Cortical map plasticity is thought to involve long-term depression (LTD) of cortical synapses, but direct evidence for LTD during plasticity or learning in vivo is lacking. One putative role for LTD is in the reduction of cortical responsiveness to behaviorally irrelevant or unused sensory stimuli, a common feature of map plasticity. Here we show that whisker deprivation, a manipulation that drives map plasticity in rat somatosensory cortex (S1), induces detectable LTD-like depression at intracortical excitatory synapses between cortical layer 4 (L4) and L2/3 pyramidal neurons. This synaptic depression occluded further LTD, enhanced LTP, was column specific, and was driven in part by competition between active and inactive whiskers. The synaptic locus of LTD and these properties suggest that LTD underlies the reduction of cortical responses to deprived whiskers, a major component of S1 map plasticity.

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Figure 1: Excitatory feedforward synaptic responses in S1 slices and their depression by whisker deprivation in vivo.
Figure 2: Depression of EPSPs by whisker deprivation.
Figure 3: Occlusion of LTD by whisker deprivation.
Figure 4: Enhancement of LTP by whisker deprivation.
Figure 5: Whisker deprivation acutely alters firing order at the L4-to-L2 synapse in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Feller, S. du Lac, N. Spitzer and the Feldman lab members for critically reading the manuscript. Supported by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience (D.E.F.), research grant #5FY01-495 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellowship (C.B.A.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurosciences Program, 9500 Gilman Drive, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Cara B. Allen & Daniel E. Feldman

  2. Division of Biological Sciences, 9500 Gilman Drive, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Tansu Celikel & Daniel E. Feldman

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Correspondence to Daniel E. Feldman.

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Allen, C., Celikel, T. & Feldman, D. Long-term depression induced by sensory deprivation during cortical map plasticity in vivo. Nat Neurosci 6, 291–299 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1012

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