Structural plasticity underlies experience-dependent functional plasticity of cortical circuits.
The stabilization of new spines in the barrel cortex is enhanced after whisker trimming, but its relationship to experience-dependent plasticity is unclear. Here we show that in wild-type mice, whisker potentiation and spine stabilization are most pronounced for layer 5 neurons at the border between spared and deprived barrel columns. In homozygote alphaCaMKII-T286A mice, which lack experience-dependent potentiation of responses to spared whiskers, there is no increase in new spine stabilization at the border between barrel columns after whisker trimming. Our data provide a causal link between new spine synapses and plasticity of adult cortical circuits and suggest that alphaCaMKII autophosphorylation plays a role in the stabilization but not formation of new spines.
Wilbrecht
Linda
L
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA. lwilbrecht@gallo.ucsf.edu
Holtmaat
Anthony
A
Wright
Nick
N
Fox
Kevin
K
Svoboda
Karel
K
D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology*