Experience-dependent changes in cortical whisker representation in the adult mouse: a 2-deoxyglucose study.
Sensory experience and learning can modify cortical body maps. We have previously reported that 3 days of classical conditioning, in which stimulation of a row of whiskers was paired with tail shock, produced an expansion of the cortical representation of the "trained row" labeled with 2-deoxyglucose (2DG), in layer IIIb and IV of the barrel cortex. The present study examined plastic remodelling of the vibrissal cortical representation after pairing whisker stimulation with a drop of sweet water. Cortical representations of rows of whiskers were mapped by 2DG autoradiography after 3 days and 2 months of training. The training resulted in enlargement of the cortical representation of vibrissae involved in the stimulus pairing compared with the contralateral representation of a row of whiskers, that were not touched during the training. This modification of whisker representation was different after short-term and long-term appetitive training. After three pairing sessions, changes in the width of cortical representation were visible in layers II/IIIa (29%) and layers V/VI (28%). After 2 months of training, significant changes in the width of cortical representation row B were found only in layer IV (41%). The changes were not observed in animals, that received whisker stimulation alone or in those who were subjected to training with unpaired stimuli. The results demonstrate that stimulus-pairing-induced changes in cortical whisker representation appeared with different time courses at different levels of cortical columnar information processing.
Siucinska
E
E
Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, ul. Pasteura 3, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland. e.siucinska@nencki.gov.pl
Kossut
M
M
D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology*
D003847:Deoxyglucose