Molecular correlates of cortical network modulation by long-term sensory experience in the adult rat barrel cortex
- 1Department of Neurocognition, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 EV Maastricht, The Netherlands
- 2Department of Molecular Animal Physiology, Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (Centre for Neuroscience), Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, 6525 GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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↵3 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Modulation of cortical network connectivity is crucial for an adaptive response to experience. In the rat barrel cortex, long-term sensory stimulation induces cortical network modifications and neuronal response changes of which the molecular basis is unknown. Here, we show that long-term somatosensory stimulation by enriched environment up-regulates cortical expression of neuropeptide mRNAs and down-regulates immediate-early gene (IEG) mRNAs specifically in the barrel cortex, and not in other brain regions. The present data suggest a central role of neuropeptides in the fine-tuning of sensory cortical circuits by long-term experience.
Footnotes
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↵4 Corresponding author
E-mail g.martens{at}ncmls.ru.nl
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.034827.114.
- Received February 14, 2014.
- Accepted March 14, 2014.
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