RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Associative Hebbian Synaptic Plasticity in Primate Visual Cortex
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 7575
OP 7579
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0983-14.2014
VO 34
IS 22
A1 Huang, Shiyong
A1 Rozas, Carlos
A1 Treviño, Mario
A1 Contreras, Jessica
A1 Yang, Sunggu
A1 Song, Lihua
A1 Yoshioka, Takashi
A1 Lee, Hey-Kyoung
A1 Kirkwood, Alfredo
YR 2014
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/22/7575.abstract
AB In primates, the functional connectivity of adult primary visual cortex is susceptible to be modified by sensory training during perceptual learning. It is widely held that this type of neural plasticity might involve mechanisms like long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). NMDAR-dependent forms of LTP and LTD are particularly attractive because in rodents they can be induced in a Hebbian manner by near coincidental presynaptic and postsynaptic firing, in a paradigm termed spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). These fundamental properties of LTP and LTD, Hebbian induction and NMDAR dependence, have not been examined in primate cortex. Here we demonstrate these properties in the primary visual cortex of the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), and also show that, like in rodents, STDP is gated by neuromodulators. These findings indicate that the cellular principles governing cortical plasticity are conserved across mammalian species, further validating the use of rodents as a model system.