Abstract

The long-term goal of this project is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of experience-dependent cortical plasticity, which must occur normally for the proper development of vision in mammals.
The first aim i s to assess the contribution of synaptic mobilization of glutamate receptors to deprivation-induced response depression in visual cortex and amblyopia.
The second aim i s to characterize the recently discovered phenomenon of stimulus-specific response potentiation (SRP), and test the hypothesis that SRP utilizes mechanisms that are revealed by the study of long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP). The proposed research promises to reveal the detailed molecular basis for experience-dependent bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the visual cortex. Besides the obvious relevance of this neural plasticity to the development of visual capabilities in humans and animals, it seems likely that similar processes form the basis for some forms of learning and memory, and also contribute to recovery of brain function after injury. Knowledge of the mechanisms of plasticity can be (and are being) applied to devise strategies to protect juvenile synapses from deleterious effects of environmental deprivation during development, and to promote synaptic strengthening and recovery of function. ? ? ?

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY012309-11
Application #
7463776
Study Section
Central Visual Processing Study Section (CVP)
Program Officer
Steinmetz, Michael A
Project Start
1998-08-01
Project End
2011-07-31
Budget Start
2008-08-01
Budget End
2009-07-31
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$315,205
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
001425594
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02139

  Publications

Schecter, Rachel W; Maher, Erin E; Welsh, Christina A et al. (2017) Experience-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in V1 Occurs without Microglial CX3CR1. J Neurosci 37:10541-10553
Chubykin, Alexander A; Roach, Emma B; Bear, Mark F et al. (2013) A cholinergic mechanism for reward timing within primary visual cortex. Neuron 77:723-35
Cho, Kathleen Ka; Bear, Mark F (2010) Promoting neurological recovery of function via metaplasticity. Future Neurol 5:21-26
Coleman, Jason E; Nahmani, Marc; Gavornik, Jeffrey P et al. (2010) Rapid structural remodeling of thalamocortical synapses parallels experience-dependent functional plasticity in mouse primary visual cortex. J Neurosci 30:9670-82
Smith, Gordon B; Bear, Mark F (2010) Bidirectional ocular dominance plasticity of inhibitory networks: recent advances and unresolved questions. Front Cell Neurosci 4:21
Khibnik, Lena A; Cho, Kathleen K A; Bear, Mark F (2010) Relative contribution of feedforward excitatory connections to expression of ocular dominance plasticity in layer 4 of visual cortex. Neuron 66:493-500
Cooke, Sam F; Bear, Mark F (2010) Visual experience induces long-term potentiation in the primary visual cortex. J Neurosci 30:16304-13
Cho, Kathleen K A; Khibnik, Lena; Philpot, Benjamin D et al. (2009) The ratio of NR2A/B NMDA receptor subunits determines the qualities of ocular dominance plasticity in visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:5377-82
Gavornik, Jeffrey P; Shuler, Marshall G Hussain; Loewenstein, Yonatan et al. (2009) Learning reward timing in cortex through reward dependent expression of synaptic plasticity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:6826-31
Coleman, J E; Law, K; Bear, M F (2009) Anatomical origins of ocular dominance in mouse primary visual cortex. Neuroscience 161:561-71

Showing the most recent 10 out of 14 publications