Neurobehavioral consequences of cortical adaptation disruption during ontogeny

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• 作者：Heather Bell ; Brian Chenoweth ; Donald A. Wilson
• 关键词：Sensory gating ; Olfaction ; Piriform cortex ; Dendritic spines ; Metabotropic glutamate receptors ; Autism
• 刊名：Neuroscience Letters
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：7 November 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：445
• 期：1
• 页码：47-52
• 全文大小：552 K

文摘

Filtering of redundant or stable inputs is a critical function of all sensory pathways. Normal sensory gating can allow processing resources to be differentially devoted to changing or otherwise biologically significant stimuli. In olfaction, short-term odor habituation is mediated by a metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR)-mediated depression of afferent synapses in the piriform cortex. Given the role of early experience in shaping cortical function and anatomy, the present experiments examined the effects of chronic habituation disruption during development on behavior and local circuit anatomy. Rats were chronically intra-cerebrally infused with the mGluR group III antagonist (RS)-a-cyclopropyl-4-phosphonophenylglycine (CPPG) during early development. The results demonstrated that early onset mGluRIII blockade resulted in a long-lasting decrement in odor habituation compared to controls, evident for at least 2 weeks post-infusion offset. Odor investigation time in the youngest animals was correlated with cortical laminar thickness, though the long-lasting behavioral effect showed no such correlation. No changes in apical dendritic spine density in the piriform cortex were detected. Combined with previous work, these results suggest that sensory gating disruption during development can have both immediate and long-lasting effects on sensory-guided behavior.