the regulation of critical period for ocular dominance plasticity

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorQuinlan, Elizabeth Men_US
dc.contributor.authorGu, Yuen_US
dc.contributor.departmentNeuroscience and Cognitive Scienceen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-11T05:56:57Z
dc.date.available2014-10-11T05:56:57Z
dc.date.issued2014en_US
dc.description.abstractThe experience dependent plasticity of stimulus selectivity, including ocular dominance plasticity, is highest during a postnatal critical period. The developmental constraint on this plasticity is thought to underlie the inability to recover from amblyopia in adults, which has generated interest in understanding the mechanisms for the initiation and termination of the critical period. Previously, it had been shown dark exposure initiated in adulthood (P90) reactivates robust ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex. In this thesis, I showed dark exposure initiated earlier (P45-55) in postnatal development does not facilitate rapid ocular dominance plasticity, demonstrating the presence of a refractory period for the regulation of synaptic plasticity by visual deprivation. Using an anesthetic other than barbiturate revealed that ocular dominance plasticity persists much later in postnatal development (up to ~ P55), which can be inhibited by diazepam, a positive allosteric modulator of ligand bound GABAARs, suggesting a regulatory mechanism that is upstream of inhibitory synaptic transmission. To test this, I used NARP and NRG1-ErbB4 to manipulate excitation onto FS (PV) INs, a major subtype of inhibitory neurons which exert powerful perisomatic inhibition onto principal neurons in the visual cortex. NARP is an activity dependent pentraxin which has been shown to accumulate AMPARs onto FS (PV) INs. Transgenic deletion of NARP decreases the number of excitatory synaptic inputs onto FS (PV) INs and reduces net excitatory synaptic drive onto FS (PV) INs. Accordingly, the visual cortex of NARP -/- mice is hyperexcitable and unable to express ocular dominance plasticity, although many aspects of visual function are normal. NRG1 is an activity dependent neutrophic factor which is proposed to promote excitability and excitatory synaptogenesis onto FS (PV) INs. Pharmacological manipulation of the NRG1-ErbB4 pathway can regulates the excitability of FS and RS neurons in visual cortex, and promotes or inhibits the expression of ocular dominance plasticity, depending on the state of maturation of cortical circuitry. Importantly, manipulations of the excitability of FS and RS neurons into the permissive range can enable the expression of ocular dominance plasticity, at any age, which holds promise to future treatment of clinical disorders such as amblyopia.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2D60F
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/15815
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledNeurosciencesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledcritical perioden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledNARPen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledNRG1-ErbB4en_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledocular dominance plasticityen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledparvalbumin interneuronsen_US
dc.titlethe regulation of critical period for ocular dominance plasticityen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Gu_umd_0117E_15574.pdf
Size:
2.64 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

UMD Theses and Dissertations
Biology Theses and Dissertations