title: Sparsification of neuronal activity in the visual cortex at eye-opening.
abstract: Eye-opening represents a turning point in the function of the visual cortex. Before eye-opening, the visual cortex is largely devoid of sensory inputs and neuronal activities are generated intrinsically. After eye-opening, the cortex starts to integrate visual information. Here we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to explore the developmental changes of the mouse visual cortex by analyzing the ongoing spontaneous activity. We found that before eye-opening, the activity of layer 2/3 neurons consists predominantly of slow wave oscillations. These waves were first detected at postnatal day 8 (P8). Their initial very low frequency (0.01 Hz) gradually increased during development to approximately 0.5 Hz in adults. Before eye-opening, a large fraction of neurons (>75%) was active during each wave. One day after eye-opening, this dense mode of recruitment changed to a sparse mode with only 36% of active neurons per wave. This was followed by a progressive decrease during the following weeks, reaching 12% of active neurons per wave in adults. The possible role of visual experience for this process of sparsification was investigated by analyzing dark-reared mice. We found that sparsification also occurred in these mice, but that the switch from a dense to a sparse activity pattern was delayed by 3-4 days as compared with normally-reared mice. These results reveal a modulatory contribution of visual experience during the first days after eye-opening, but an overall dominating role of intrinsic factors. We propose that the transformation in network activity from dense to sparse is a prerequisite for the changed cortical function at eye-opening.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Protein Science and Institute of Neuroscience, Technical University Munich, Biedersteinerstrasse 29, 80802 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Nathalie L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Rochefort
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Garaschuk
authors.forename: Ruxandra-Iulia
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Milos
authors.forename: Madoka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Narushima
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marandi
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pichler
authors.forename: Yury
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kovalchuk
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konnerth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium
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