Strabismus does not prevent recovery from monocular deprivation: a challenge for simple Hebbian models of synaptic modification

Visual Neuroscience
R Malach, R C Van Sluyters

Abstract

It has been suggested that development of central connections in the mammalian visual system is governed by a simple Hebbian rule of synaptic modifiability. Under such a rule, simultaneity of presynaptic and postsynaptic action potentials is a prerequisite for enhanced synaptic efficacy. The present paper reports the results of a study designed to test whether this hypothesis is applicable to the development of the thalamo-cortical visual pathway. In four-week-old kittens, exposure to a 2-d period of monocular deprivation was used to render the vast majority of cortical cells capable of being activated only by the nondeprived eye. During a subsequent 3-5 month recovery period, both eyes were open but surgically misaligned. This combination of conditions was chosen so that during the recovery period presynaptic activity originating from the initially deprived eye would be decorrelated from postsynaptic action potentials in cortical neurons. If synaptic modification is regulated by a simple Hebbian mechanism, then in this situation the deprived eye should be unable to recover control of cortical cells. In fact, the present results indicate that during the recovery period the proportion of cortical neurons dominated by the deprive...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 1, 1996·Brain Research. Brain Research Reviews·S J Cruikshank, N M Weinberger
May 16, 2013·PLoS Computational Biology·Jonathan J HuntGeoffrey J Goodhill
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Jul 1, 2015·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·Joshua T Trachtenberg

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