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Plasticity in the adult brain: lessons from the visual system

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Abstract

While cortical circuits display maximal sensitivity to sensory experience during critical periods of early postnatal development, far less plasticity is present in the mature brain. Ocular dominance shift of visual cortical neurons in response to eye occlusion and recovery of visual functions from a period of sensory deprivation are two classical models in the study of critical period determinants in the visual cortex. Recent papers employing various pharmacological and environmental strategies have shown that it is possible to reinstate much greater levels of plasticity in the adult visual cortex than previously suspected. These studies point toward intracortical inhibition as a crucial determinant for critical period regulation in the visual system and have a great potential for therapeutic rehabilitation and recovery from injury in the adult brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neurobiology, Scuola Normale Superiore, Via Moruzzi 1, 56100, Pisa, Italy

    Maria Spolidoro, Alessandro Sale & Lamberto Maffei

  2. Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Firenze, Florence, Italy

    Nicoletta Berardi

  3. Institute of Neuroscience, CNR, Pisa, Italy

    Nicoletta Berardi & Lamberto Maffei

Authors
  1. Maria Spolidoro
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  2. Alessandro Sale
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  3. Nicoletta Berardi
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  4. Lamberto Maffei
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Correspondence to Maria Spolidoro.

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M. Spolidoro and A. Sale have equally contributed to this work.

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Spolidoro, M., Sale, A., Berardi, N. et al. Plasticity in the adult brain: lessons from the visual system. Exp Brain Res 192, 335–341 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1509-3

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