Noradrenergic control of ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex of dark-reared cats

Brain Research. Developmental Brain Research
T ShirokawaV S Ramachandran

Abstract

In the visual cortex of cats which had been dark-reared for several months since the time before natural eye opening, a cortical infusion of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), a noradrenaline (NA)-related neurotoxin, partially suppressed a usual shift in ocular dominance following brief monocular lid suture, causing a significant loss of binocular cells. This partial shift in ocular dominance (U-shaped histogram) was also observed typically in the control hemisphere of cats which were subjected to dark-rearing for more than a year. Furthermore, the expected shift in ocular dominance following monocular deprivation was blocked by a direct cortical infusion of D,L-metoprolol, a selective beta 1-adrenergic receptor antagonist. The blockade was not obtained by D-metoprolol, a biologically inert stereo-isomer, under the comparable condition. In contrast, exogenous L-NA gave rise to an obvious shift in ocular dominance toward the non-deprived eye. The present results suggest that the NA-beta 1 adrenoreceptor system was necessary to maintain the ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex of dark-reared cats.

References

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Citations

Feb 1, 1993·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·S Hockfield, R G Kalb
Feb 6, 2004·The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience·Stephanie Moriceau, Regina M Sullivan
Oct 1, 1995·Reviews in the Neurosciences·Q Gu
Aug 2, 2020·The Journal of Comparative Neurology·Takuji Kasamatsu, Kazuyuki Imamura

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