title: Associations of Unilateral Whisker and Olfactory Signals Induce Synapse Formation and Memory Cell Recruitment in Bilateral Barrel Cortices: Cellular Mechanism for Unilateral Training Toward Bilateral Memory.
abstract: Somatosensory signals and operative skills learned by unilateral limbs can be retrieved bilaterally. In terms of cellular mechanism underlying this unilateral learning toward bilateral memory, we hypothesized that associative memory cells in bilateral cortices and synapse innervations between them were produced. In the examination of this hypothesis, we have observed that paired unilateral whisker and odor stimulations led to odorant-induced whisker motions in bilateral sides, which were attenuated by inhibiting the activity of barrel cortices. In the mice that showed bilateral cross-modal responses, the neurons in both sides of barrel cortices became to encode this new odor signal alongside the innate whisker signal. Axon projections and synapse formations from the barrel cortex, which was co-activated with the piriform cortex, toward its contralateral barrel cortex (CBC) were upregulated. Glutamatergic synaptic transmission in bilateral barrel cortices was upregulated and GABAergic synaptic transmission was downregulated. The associative activations of the sensory cortices facilitate new axon projection, glutamatergic synapse formation and GABAergic synapse downregulation, which drive the neurons to be recruited as associative memory cells in the bilateral cortices. Our data reveal the productions of associative memory cells and synapse innervations in bilateral sensory cortices for unilateral training toward bilateral memory.
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Zilong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Ruicheng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Qingdao University Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dangui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Shidi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Sudong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical College Bengbu, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; Department of Pathophysiology, Bengbu Medical CollegeBengbu, China; School of Pharmacy, Qingdao UniversityShandong, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Hui
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: GABA; barrel cortex; glutamate; memory; neuron; olfaction; synapse; whisker