Layer- and cell-type-specific effects of neonatal whisker-trimming in adult rat barrel cortex.
Tactile deprivation in rats produced by whisker-trimming early in life leads to abnormally robust responses of excitatory neurons in layer 4 of primary somatosensory cortex when the re-grown whiskers are stimulated. Present findings from fast-spike neurons indicate that presumed inhibitory cells fire less robustly under the same conditions. These contrasting effects may reflect altered patterns of thalamocortical input to excitatory versus inhibitory cells and/or changes in the strength of intracortical connections. Despite increased excitability of layer 4, neurons in layer 2/3 respond at control levels even after full whisker re-growth. Layer 4 synapses onto supragranular neurons may be permanently depressed as a result of neonatal sensory deprivation.
Lee
Soo-Hyun
SH
Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA.
Land
Peter W
PW
Simons
Daniel J
DJ
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000294:innervation*