Development of auditory cortical synaptic receptive fields

Abstract

The central nervous system is plastic throughout life, but is most sensitive to the statistics of the sensory environment during critical periods of early postnatal development. In the auditory cortex, various forms of acoustic experience have been found to shape the formation of receptive fields and influence the overall rate of cortical organization. The synaptic mechanisms that control cortical receptive field plasticity are beginning to be described, particularly for frequency tuning in rodent primary auditory cortex. Inhibitory circuitry plays a major role in critical period regulation, and new evidence suggests that the formation of excitatory-inhibitory balance determines the duration of critical period plasticity for auditory cortical frequency tuning. Cortical inhibition is poorly tuned in the infant brain, but becomes co-tuned with excitation in an experience-dependent manner over the first postnatal month. We discuss evidence suggesting that this may be a general feature of the developing cortex, and describe the functional implications of such transient excitatory-inhibitory imbalance.

Adult cortical plasticity following injury: Recapitulation of critical period mechanisms?

“…For example, in the auditory system a CP exists for rapid and permanent alterations of cortical sensory representations in response to sound (Eggermont, 2013, Kral, 2013), with implications that inform cochlear implantation (Kral and Sharma, 2012). Furthermore, in primary somatosensory and auditory cortices critical periods are thought to be regulated via balances in excitatory/inhibitory network activity (Froemke and Jones, 2011, Xiong et al, 2011, Zhang et al, 2011), a suggestion that has been made for the modulation of the CP in V1 as well (Hensch and Fagiolini, 2005, Chen and Nedivi, 2013). While these topics present fascinating parallels with ODP, we refer readers to the citations listed above for an in depth review.…”

Synchronized Progression of Prestin Expression and Auditory Brainstem Response during Postnatal Development in Rats

“…The maturation of auditory perception requires completion of the structural and functional development of both the auditory periphery and the central auditory system. Some important studies have investigated the maturation of central neurons and the refinement of the synaptic connections [4, 5]. In vivo patch-clamp data show that subthreshold auditory inputs were observed in cortical neurons before hearing onset [3, 6].…”

Ontogeny of contextual fear memory formation, specificity, and persistence in mice

“…Pinpointing the precise age when animals begin to form memories of aversive events can be valuable for understanding the onset of anxiety and mood disorders stemming from maladaptive early life experience (Pine 2009;Bale et al 2010;Marco et al 2011) and for detecting early cognitive impairment in models of autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and fetal alcohol syndrome (Schneider et al 2011;Kaffman and Krystal 2012). During infancy and adolescence, the progressive growth and refinement of neural circuitry supporting sensation and perception (Bourne 2010;Froemke and Jones 2011), cognition (Benes et al 2000;Dumas 2005), and emotion (Braun 2011) gradually enables young rodents to begin learning about their surroundings. For example, around 17 d of age, rats start to form memories of contexts they encounter (Brasser and Spear 2004;Yap and Richardson 2005;Foster and Burman 2010), and by 23 d of age, they can associate those contexts with the occurrence of aversive events (Rudy 1993;Rudy and Morledge 1994;Raineki et al 2010;Schiffino et al 2011).…”