title: Ocular dominance plasticity disrupts binocular inhibition-excitation matching in visual cortex.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To ensure that neuronal networks function in a stable fashion, neurons receive balanced inhibitory and excitatory inputs. In various brain regions, this balance has been found to change temporarily during plasticity. Whether changes in inhibition have an instructive or permissive role in plasticity remains unclear. Several studies have addressed this question using ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex as a model, but so far, it remains controversial whether changes in inhibition drive this form of plasticity by directly affecting eye-specific responses or through increasing the plasticity potential of excitatory connections.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We tested how three major classes of interneurons affect eye-specific responses in normally reared or monocularly deprived mice by optogenetically suppressing their activity. We find that in contrast to somatostatin-expressing or vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-expressing interneurons, parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons strongly inhibit visual responses. In individual neurons of normal mice, inhibition and excitation driven by either eye are balanced, and suppressing PV interneurons does not alter ocular preference. Monocular deprivation disrupts the binocular balance of inhibition and excitation in individual neurons, causing suppression of PV interneurons to change their ocular preference. Importantly, however, these changes do not consistently favor responses to one of the eyes at the population level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Monocular deprivation disrupts the binocular balance of inhibition and excitation of individual cells. This disbalance does not affect the overall expression of ocular dominance. Our data therefore support a permissive rather than an instructive role of inhibition in ocular dominance plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Visual Plasticity, The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: M Hadi
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Saiepour
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Visual Plasticity, The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rajeev
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rajendran
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Visual Plasticity, The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Azar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Omrani
authors.affiliation: Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Cell & Neurobiology, University of Southern California, 1501 San Pablo Street, ZNI 439, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Wen-Pei
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Cell & Neurobiology, University of Southern California, 1501 San Pablo Street, ZNI 439, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Huizhong W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Visual Plasticity, The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: J Alexander
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Heimel
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Visual Plasticity, The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: c.levelt@nin.knaw.nl.
authors.forename: Christiaan N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Levelt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D023882:Dominance, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D007395:Interneurons / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D017494:Proton Pumps
chemical_list: D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D010320:Parvalbumins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C055476:archaerhodopsin protein, Archaea; D017494:Proton Pumps