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Refinement of Spatial Receptive Fields in the Developing Mouse Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Is Coordinated with Excitatory and Inhibitory Remodeling
- Source :
- The Journal of Neuroscience. 38:4531-4542
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Society for Neuroscience, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Receptive field properties of individual visual neurons are dictated by the precise patterns of synaptic connections they receive, including the arrangement of inputs in visual space and features such as polarity (On vs Off). The inputs from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the mouse undergo significant refinement during development. However, it is unknown how this refinement corresponds to the establishment of functional visual response properties. Here we conductedin vivoandin vitrorecordings in the mouse LGN, beginning just after natural eye opening, to determine how receptive fields develop as excitatory and feedforward inhibitory retinal afferents refine. Experiments used both male and female subjects. Forin vivoassessment of receptive fields, we performed multisite extracellular recordings in awake mice. Spatial receptive fields at eye-opening were >2 times larger than in adulthood, and decreased in size over the subsequent week. This topographic refinement was accompanied by other spatial changes, such as a decrease in spot size preference and an increase in surround suppression. Notably, the degree of specificity in terms of On/Off and sustained/transient responses appeared to be established already at eye opening and did not change. We performedin vitrorecordings of the synaptic responses evoked by optic tract stimulation across the same time period. These recordings revealed a pairing of decreased excitatory and increased feedforward inhibitory convergence, providing a potential mechanism to explain the spatial receptive field refinement.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe development of precise patterns of retinogeniculate connectivity has been a powerful model system for understanding the mechanisms underlying the activity-dependent refinement of sensory systems. Here we link the maturation of spatial receptive field properties in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) to the remodeling of retinal and inhibitory feedforward convergence onto LGN neurons. These findings should thus provide a starting point for testing the cell type-specific plasticity mechanisms that lead to refinement of different excitatory and inhibitory inputs, and for determining the effect of these mechanisms on the establishment of mature receptive fields in the LGN.
- Subjects :
- Male
Retinal Ganglion Cells
0301 basic medicine
Aging
genetic structures
Optic tract
Surround suppression
Sensory system
Biology
Lateral geniculate nucleus
Inhibitory postsynaptic potential
Mice
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Thalamus
Neural Pathways
medicine
Animals
Optic Tract
Neurons, Afferent
Research Articles
Retina
General Neuroscience
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials
Geniculate Bodies
Neural Inhibition
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Receptive field
Space Perception
Synapses
Excitatory postsynaptic potential
Female
sense organs
Visual Fields
Extracellular Space
Neuroscience
Photic Stimulation
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15292401 and 02706474
- Volume :
- 38
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1dee32555d938ca18431e57fc33efbc8