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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 4, 2004, 24(31):6928-6938; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1110-04.2004

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Cellular/Molecular
A Morphological Correlate of Synaptic Scaling in Visual Cortex

Wes Wallace¹ and Mark F. Bear²

¹Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, and ²Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Picower Center for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

We studied the response of dendritic spines in the thalamic-recipient zone of rat visual cortex to simple manipulations of the visual environment. We measured the morphologies of a total of 3824 spines located on the basal dendrites of 60 layer 3 pyramidal cells. As expected from previous studies, we found a significantly lower spine density in dark-reared animals at postnatal day 30 (P30) compared with light-reared controls. Additional analysis revealed that the spines in dark-reared animals were significantly shorter and more bulbous than in light-reared animals. When these two results were combined, we found that the total synaptic area per unit length of dendrite was conserved, compatible with the phenomenon of "synaptic scaling." We also found that the increase in average spine head diameter is reversed by 10 d of light exposure (starting at P20), but surprisingly, the decrease in spine density is not. Thus, not all effects of dark rearing can be reversed by subsequent visual experience, even when the experience occurs during the third postnatal week.

Key words: dendritic spines; dark rearing; visual cortex; spine morphology; spine density; synaptic scaling

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Received March 25, 2004; revised June 23, 2004; accepted June 26, 2004.

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