Summation of connectivity strengths in the visual cortex reveals stability of neuronal microcircuits after plasticity

BMC Neuroscience

Research Article

Sarah Cattan¹  Vishal Bharmauria¹  Stéphane Molotchnikoff¹  Lyes Bachatene¹  Nayan Chanauria¹  Jean Rouat¹ 

[1] Laboratoire de Neurosciences de la vision, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 Succ. Centre-Ville, H3C 3J7, Montréal, QC, Canada;Neurosciences Computationnelles et Traitement Intelligent des Signaux (NECOTIS), Département de Génie Électrique et Génie Informatique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada;

关键词: Visual cortex;    Plasticity;    Summation;    Correlation;    Adaptation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12868-015-0203-1

 received in 2015-05-22, accepted in 2015-09-30,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWithin sensory systems, neurons are continuously affected by environmental stimulation. Recently, we showed that, on cell-pair basis, visual adaptation modulates the connectivity strength between similarly tuned neurons to orientation and we suggested that, on a larger scale, the connectivity strength between neurons forming sub-networks could be maintained after adaptation-induced-plasticity. In the present paper, based on the summation of the connectivity strengths, we sought to examine how, within cell-assemblies, functional connectivity is regulated during an exposure-based adaptation.ResultsUsing intrinsic optical imaging combined with electrophysiological recordings following the reconfiguration of the maps of the primary visual cortex by long stimulus exposure, we found that within functionally connected cells, the summed connectivity strengths remain almost equal although connections among individual pairs are modified. Neuronal selectivity appears to be strongly associated with neuronal connectivity in a “homeodynamic” manner which maintains the stability of cortical functional relationships after experience-dependent plasticity.ConclusionsOur results support the “homeostatic plasticity concept” giving new perspectives on how the summation in visual cortex leads to the stability within labile neuronal ensembles, depending on the newly acquired properties by neurons.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Bachatene et al. 2015