PMID: 11923427Mar 30, 2002Paper

Rapid, experience-dependent changes in levels of synaptic zinc in primary somatosensory cortex of the adult mouse

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Craig E Brown, Richard H Dyck

Abstract

Electrophysiological studies have established that the adult cerebral cortex undergoes immediate functional reorganizations after perturbations of the sensory periphery. These activity-dependent modifications are thought to be mediated via the rapid regulation of the synaptic strength of existing connections. Recent studies have implicated synaptic zinc as contributing to activity-dependent mechanisms of cortical plasticity, such as long-term potentiation and long-term depression, by virtue of its potent ability to modulate glutamatergic neurotransmission. To investigate the role of synaptic zinc in cortical plasticity, we examined changes in the barrel-specific distribution of zinc in axon terminals innervating the primary somatosensory cortex of adult mice at different time points after whisker plucking. In layer IV of normal adult mice, zinc staining in the barrel field was characterized by intense staining in inter-barrel septae and low levels of staining in barrel hollows. Within 3 hr, and up to 1 week after the removal of a row of whiskers, zinc staining increased significantly in barrel hollows corresponding to the plucked whiskers. With longer survival times, levels of zinc staining gradually declined in deprived barrel...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Barrel cortex

Here is the latest research on barrel cortex, a region of somatosensory and motor corticies in the brain, which are used by animals that rely on whiskers for world exploration.