Summary
Recordings from single units in kitten primary visual cortex show that a reversible blockade of the discharge activities of cortical neurons and geniculocortical afferent terminals by intracortical infusion of the sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin (TTX) completely prevented the ocular dominance shift that would normally be seen after monocular deprivation. The blockade of cortical plasticity, like the blockade of discharge activity, was reversible, and plasticity was restored following recovery from the effects of TTX. These results extend previous work suggesting involvement of electrical activity at the level of the cortex in the phenomenon of cortical plasticity by demonstrating an absolute requirement for discharge activities in the primary visual cortex.
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This work was supported by the NIH (EY02874 and EY00213) and by grants from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the University of California Academic Senate
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Reiter, H.O., Waitzman, D.M. & Stryker, M.P. Cortical activity blockade prevents ocular dominance plasticity in the kitten visual cortex. Exp Brain Res 65, 182–188 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00243841
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00243841