Recovery in the blink of an eye.
Sensory deprivation sheds light on cortical plasticity mechanisms, but recovery of lost brain function may bear the greatest clinical relevance. Ramoa and colleagues now find that binocular recovery from monocular occlusion can be extraordinarily rapid, independent of protein synthesis, and precise. Reactivation of latent connections may then reverse amblyopia.
Hensch
Takao K
TK
Laboratory for Neuronal Circuit Development, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
D000818:Animals; D023882:Dominance, Ocular; D005123:Eye; D005289:Ferrets; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*