Department of Biomedical Engineering Posters and Presentations
Experience dependent plasticity of cortical attention states
Document Type
Poster
Keywords
Visual cortex plasticity; visual development; sensory experience dependent plasticity; sensory experience abruption
Publication Date
4-2017
Abstract
Modulation of sensory processing by attention occurs in part through the regulation of cortical oscillations in sensory cortex. The attentive or aroused state is generated by high-frequency gamma oscillations while during inattentive state cortical activity is dominated by low-frequency oscillations. It is unknown how or if this cortical state modulation is affected by changes in sensory experience.
In this research, we study movement modulation of cortical oscillations in the visual cortex of rodents as a model for human selective attention. We use binocular eye-suturing in c57bl/6 mice as a model of visual deprivation in human, such as an early cataract, and study its effects through critical period. In eye-suture (ES) animals both eyelids are sutured before eye opening (EO). To assess cortical state regulation we obtain extracellular recordings of local field potentials (LFPs) and multi-unit activities (MUAs) using multi-electrode arrays in mice trained to run on a treadmill.
Our preliminary evidence suggests that in control animals motion robustly amplifies gamma rhythms and decreases slow wave activities as early as the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity, a key developmental time for organization of thalamic afferent. This modulation of cortical state by movement was negligible in ES animals suggesting that normal visual experience is necessary for the development of cortical states. As expected, firing rates in ES animals were lower than control animals, showing the ES reduced excitatory drive to cortex.
Thus our results suggest that cortical state regulation important for attention is either disrupted or delayed following deprivation of patterned vision. Further experiments will distinguish between these two possibilities and define the role of plasticity in the establishment of normal cortical oscillation.
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Open Access
1
Experience dependent plasticity of cortical attention states
Modulation of sensory processing by attention occurs in part through the regulation of cortical oscillations in sensory cortex. The attentive or aroused state is generated by high-frequency gamma oscillations while during inattentive state cortical activity is dominated by low-frequency oscillations. It is unknown how or if this cortical state modulation is affected by changes in sensory experience.
In this research, we study movement modulation of cortical oscillations in the visual cortex of rodents as a model for human selective attention. We use binocular eye-suturing in c57bl/6 mice as a model of visual deprivation in human, such as an early cataract, and study its effects through critical period. In eye-suture (ES) animals both eyelids are sutured before eye opening (EO). To assess cortical state regulation we obtain extracellular recordings of local field potentials (LFPs) and multi-unit activities (MUAs) using multi-electrode arrays in mice trained to run on a treadmill.
Our preliminary evidence suggests that in control animals motion robustly amplifies gamma rhythms and decreases slow wave activities as early as the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity, a key developmental time for organization of thalamic afferent. This modulation of cortical state by movement was negligible in ES animals suggesting that normal visual experience is necessary for the development of cortical states. As expected, firing rates in ES animals were lower than control animals, showing the ES reduced excitatory drive to cortex.
Thus our results suggest that cortical state regulation important for attention is either disrupted or delayed following deprivation of patterned vision. Further experiments will distinguish between these two possibilities and define the role of plasticity in the establishment of normal cortical oscillation.
Comments
To be presented at GW Annual Research Days 2017.