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Molecular mechanism for loss of visual cortical responsiveness following brief monocular deprivation

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 854–862 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

A dramatic form of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity is revealed in visual cortex when one eye is temporarily deprived of vision during early postnatal life. Monocular deprivation (MD) alters synaptic transmission such that cortical neurons cease to respond to stimulation of the deprived eye, but how this occurs is poorly understood. Here we show in rat visual cortex that brief MD sets in motion the same molecular and functional changes as the experimental model of homosynaptic long-term depression (LTD), and that prior synaptic depression by MD occludes subsequent induction of LTD. The mechanisms of LTD, about which there is now a detailed understanding, therefore contribute to visual cortical plasticity.

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Figure 1: LTD in vivo is accompanied by a dephosphorylation of GluR1 at Ser845 and a decrease in visually evoked potentials.
Figure 2: Brief MD leads to depression of synaptic transmission in A17 contralateral to the deprived eye (DE).
Figure 3: Brief MD alters AMPAR phosphorylation in visual cortex.
Figure 4: Brief MD produces synaptic depression and dephosphorylation of GluR1 at Ser845 in monocular and binocular segments of A17 contralateral to the deprived eye.
Figure 5: Brief MD is accompanied by a loss of surface-expressed AMPARs in juvenile animals.
Figure 6: Prior monocular deprivation occludes LFS-induced decreases in synaptic strength.
Figure 7: Time course of changes in AMPAR phosphorylation following monocular deprivation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Orsini from the laboratory of L. Maffei (Pisa, Italy) for providing VEP software, and E. Sklar, K. Clayton, K. Miller and S. Meagher for assistance. The work was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Eye Institute.

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  1. Arnold J Heynen and Bong-June Yoon: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Picower Center for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Arnold J Heynen, Bong-June Yoon, Cheng-Hang Liu & Mark F Bear

  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, USA

    Hee J Chung & Richard L Huganir

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  1. Arnold J Heynen
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Correspondence to Mark F Bear.

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Heynen, A., Yoon, BJ., Liu, CH. et al. Molecular mechanism for loss of visual cortical responsiveness following brief monocular deprivation. Nat Neurosci 6, 854–862 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1100

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