Developmental sensory experience balances cortical excitation and inhibition.

ABSTRACT: Early in life, neural circuits are highly susceptible to outside influences. The organization of the primary auditory cortex (A1) in particular is governed by acoustic experience during the critical period, an epoch near the beginning of postnatal development throughout which cortical synapses and networks are especially plastic. This neonatal sensitivity to the pattern of sensory inputs is believed to be essential for constructing stable and adequately adapted representations of the auditory world and for the acquisition of language skills by children. One important principle of synaptic organization in mature brains is the balance between excitation and inhibition, which controls receptive field structure and spatiotemporal flow of neural activity, but it is unknown how and when this exc

SUBMITTER: Dorrn AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2888507 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature