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The Journal of Neuroscience, March 11, 2009, 29(10):3172-3181; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5911-08.2009

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Development/Plasticity/Repair
Sensory Experience Alters Specific Branches of Individual Corticocortical Axons during Development

Randy M. Bruno,^1,2 Thomas T. G. Hahn,^1,3 Damian J. Wallace,^1,4 Christiaan P. J. de Kock,^1,5 and Bert Sakmann^1,6

¹Department of Cell Physiology, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany, ²Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, ³Department of Psychiatry, Central Institute for Mental Health, 68072 Mannheim, Germany, ⁴Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, 72076 Tübingen, Germany, ⁵Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU University Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and ⁶Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, 82152 Martinsried, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Randy M. Bruno at the above address. Email: rb2604{at}columbia.edu

Sensory experience can, over the course of days to weeks, produce long-lasting changes in brain function. Recent studies suggest that functional plasticity is mediated by alterations of the strengths of existing synapses or dynamics of dendritic spines. Alterations of cortical axons could also contribute to functional changes, but little is known about the effects of experience at the level of individual corticocortical axons. We reconstructed individual layer (L) 2/3 pyramidal neurons filled in vivo in developing barrel cortex of control and partially sensory-deprived rats. L2 axons had larger field spans than L3 axons but were otherwise equivalently affected by deprivation. Whisker trimming over 2 weeks markedly reduced overall length of axonal branches in L2/3, but individual horizontal axons were as likely to innervate deprived areas as spared ones. The largest effect of deprivation was instead to reduce the length of those axonal branches in L2/3 oriented toward deprived regions. Thus, the location of a branch relative to its originating soma, rather than its own location within any specific cortical column, was the strongest determinant of axonal organization. Individual axons from L2/3 into L5/6 were similarly altered by whisker trimming although to a lesser extent. Thus, sensory experience over relatively short timescales may change the patterning of specific axonal branches within as well as between cortical columns during development.

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Received Dec. 12, 2008; revised Jan. 12, 2009; accepted Feb. 1, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Randy M. Bruno at the above address. Email: rb2604{at}columbia.edu

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