ETD

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Tesi etd-06102015-161207


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di laurea magistrale
Autore
LONGO, VALENTINA
URN
etd-06102015-161207
Titolo
EFFECTS OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE ON FUNCTIONAL AND ANATOMICAL MEASURES OF VISUAL CORTEX PLASTICITY
Dipartimento
BIOLOGIA
Corso di studi
BIOLOGIA APPLICATA ALLA BIOMEDICINA
Relatori
relatore Prof. Dal Monte, Massimo
relatore Prof. Sengpiel, Frank
Parole chiave
  • neuronal plasticity
Data inizio appello
20/07/2015
Consultabilità
Completa
Riassunto
EFFECTS OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE ON FUNCTIONAL AND ANATOMICAL MEASURES OF VISUAL CORTEX PLASTICITY

Much of the recent progress in examining how cortical circuits are influenced by experience has been achieved by using the measurement of Ocular Dominance (OD) plasticity in the visual cortex.
In this paradigm, altered retinal activity caused by unilateral eye-lid closure—monocular deprivation—leads to dramatic shifts in the binocular response properties of neurons in the visual cortex. Although the phenomenology of OD shifts has been described in detail in several species, the mouse is the most useful model for identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying OD plasticity: pronounced plasticity has been revealed in mouse visual cortex throughout life using physiological, imaging and neuroanatomical methods, and important insights into factors controlling the critical period. Binocular visual function appears to be most sensitive to experiential changes early in life, between postnatal days 19 and 32—i.e. during the critical period—despite several studies reporting that OD shifts in mice can also be induced in adulthood through an extension of the time course of the critical period, which closure has been shown mostly related to the maturation of intracortical inhibition.
We measured the ocular dominance shift following monocular deprivation using Optical Imaging, which allows for detection of the size and the strength of response of the stimulated area in mouse visual cortex (V1) after viewing a specific visual stimulus on a screen. Moreover, the number of inhibitory cells and perineuronal nets were counted by immunohistochemistry to determine their involvement in neuronal plasticity during recovery from monocular deprivation.
Our experiments showed that 7 days of dark rearing after long-term monocular deprivation can enhance plasticity such that a normal OD is restored.
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