PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wilbrecht, Linda
AU  - Holtmaat, Anthony
AU  - Wright, Nick
AU  - Fox, Kevin
AU  - Svoboda, Karel
TI  - Structural Plasticity Underlies Experience-Dependent Functional Plasticity of Cortical Circuits
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6403-09.2010
DP  - 2010 Apr 07
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 4927--4932
VI  - 30
IP  - 14
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/14/4927.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/14/4927.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2010 Apr 07; 30
AB  - The stabilization of new spines in the barrel cortex is enhanced after whisker trimming, but its relationship to experience-dependent plasticity is unclear. Here we show that in wild-type mice, whisker potentiation and spine stabilization are most pronounced for layer 5 neurons at the border between spared and deprived barrel columns. In homozygote αCaMKII-T286A mice, which lack experience-dependent potentiation of responses to spared whiskers, there is no increase in new spine stabilization at the border between barrel columns after whisker trimming. Our data provide a causal link between new spine synapses and plasticity of adult cortical circuits and suggest that αCaMKII autophosphorylation plays a role in the stabilization but not formation of new spines.