Reduced ocular dominance plasticity and long-term potentiation in the developing visual cortex of protein kinase A RIIα mutant mice

The cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) signalling pathway has been shown to play an important role in long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD), and ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex. In order to investigate further the involvement of individual PKA subunits in visual cortical plasticity, LTP and LTD in vitro and ocular dominance plasticity in vivo in the developing visual cortex were examined in mice lacking the RIIalpha subunit of PKA. Here we show that LTP in layers II/III was decreased in RIIalpha knockout mice, but LTD was almost unaffected, and the ocular dominance shift induced by monocular deprivation was also partially blocked. These data provide evidence that RIIalpha is involved in LTP and ocular dominance plasticity, and further suggest that different afferent inputs could selectively activate particular subunits of PKA and thereby direct specific aspects of visual cortical plasticity.