Journal
CEREBRAL CORTEX
Volume 24, Issue 7, Pages 1956-1965Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht053
Keywords
auditory cortex; development; homeostatic plasticity; plasticity; tumor necrosis factor
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders [DC009259]
- National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program
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Early experience shapes sensory representations in a critical period of heightened plasticity. This adaptive process is thought to involve both Hebbian and homeostatic synaptic plasticity. Although Hebbian plasticity has been investigated as a mechanism for cortical map reorganization, less is known about the contribution of homeostatic plasticity. We investigated the role of homeostatic synaptic plasticity in the development and refinement of frequency representations in the primary auditory cortex using the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) knockout (KO), a mutant mouse with impaired homeostatic but normal Hebbian plasticity. Our results indicate that these mice develop weaker tonal responses and incomplete frequency representations. Rearing in a single-frequency revealed a normal expansion of cortical representations in KO mice. However, TNF-alpha KOs lacked homeostatic adjustments of cortical responses following exposure to multiple frequencies. Specifically, while this sensory over-stimulation resulted in competitive refinement of frequency tuning in wild-type controls, it broadened frequency tuning in TNF-alpha KOs. Our results suggest that homeostatic plasticity plays an important role in gain control and competitive interaction in sensory cortical development.
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