Barrel cortex plasticity after photothrombotic stroke involves potentiating responses of pre-existing circuits but not functional remapping to new circuits.

ABSTRACT: Recovery after stroke is thought to be mediated by adaptive circuit plasticity, whereby surviving neurons assume the roles of those that died. However, definitive longitudinal evidence of neurons changing their response selectivity after stroke is lacking. We sought to directly test whether such functional "remapping" occurs within mouse primary somatosensory cortex after a stroke that destroys the C1 barrel. Using in vivo calcium imaging to longitudinally record sensory-evoked activity under light anesthesia, we did not find any increase in the number of C1 whisker-responsive neurons in the adjacent, spared D3 barrel after stroke. To promote plasticity after stroke, we also plucked all whiskers except C1 (forced use therapy). This led to an increase in the reliability of sensory-evoked re

SUBMITTER: Zeiger WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8233353 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature