Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Environmental enrichment in adulthood promotes amblyopia recovery through a reduction of intracortical inhibition

Abstract

Loss of visual acuity caused by abnormal visual experience during development (amblyopia) is an untreatable pathology in adults. We report that environmental enrichment in adult amblyopic rats restored normal visual acuity and ocular dominance. These effects were due to reduced GABAergic inhibition in the visual cortex, accompanied by increased expression of BDNF and reduced density of extracellular-matrix perineuronal nets, and were prevented by enhancement of inhibition through benzodiazepine cortical infusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Environmental enrichment promotes amblyopia recovery and reduces intracortical inhibition in adult rats.
Figure 2: Recovery from amblyopia in environmental enrichment is due to a reduced GABAergic inhibition in the visual cortex, accompanied by increased BDNF expression and reduced density of PNNs.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mitchell, D.E. & MacKinnon, S. Clin. Exp. Optom. 85, 5–18 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Levi, D.M., Polat, U. & Hu, Y.S. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 38, 1493–1510 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Polat, U., Ma-Naim, T., Belkin, M. & Sagi, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 6692–6697 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Erisir, A. & Harris, J.L. J. Neurosci. 23, 5208–5218 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pham, T.A., Impey, S., Storm, D.R. & Stryker, M.P. Neuron 22, 63–72 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hensch, T.K. et al. Science 282, 1504–1508 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Huang, Z.J. et al. Cell 98, 739–755 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Fagiolini, M. & Hensch, T.K. Nature 404, 183–186 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pizzorusso, T. et al. Science 298, 1248–1251 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. van Praag, H., Kempermann, G. & Gage, F.H. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 1, 191–198 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hensch, T.K. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 6, 877–888 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kirkwood, A. & Bear, M.F. J. Neurosci. 14, 1634–1645 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Artola, A. & Singer, W. Nature 330, 649–652 (1987).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. He, H.Y., Hodos, W. & Quinlan, E.M. J. Neurosci. 26, 2951–2955 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Pizzorusso, T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 8517–8522 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank F. Clementi for kindly providing us the diazepam and A. Viegi for his technical assistance with high-performance liquid chromatography. This work was supported by grants from Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca (MIUR), Programmi di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) and Fondo Integrativo Speciale Ricerca (FISR).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

A.S. and J.F.M.V. contributed equally to this work. A.S. carried out the in vivo electrophysiology, behavioral experiments, immunohistochemistry and assisted in the in vivo brain microdialysis. J.F.M.V. carried out the in vivo brain microdialysis, high performance liquid chromatography and assisted in the in vivo electrophysiology. P.M. carried out the in vivo electrophysiology and M.C.C., the immunohistochemistry experiments. L.B. performed the behavioral assessment of visual acuity in normal rats and R.D.P., the in vitro electrophysiology. A.S., J.F.M.V. and L.M. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessandro Sale.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Visual acuity recovery in RS-EE adult rats. (PDF 22 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Levels of extracellular glutamate are not different between RS-SC and RS-EE adult rats. (PDF 61 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Environmental enrichment–induced changes of plasticity factors in the visual cortex. (PDF 391 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 122 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sale, A., Maya Vetencourt, J., Medini, P. et al. Environmental enrichment in adulthood promotes amblyopia recovery through a reduction of intracortical inhibition. Nat Neurosci 10, 679–681 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1899

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1899

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing