Thalamic regulation of a visual critical period and motor behavior

• Published in: Cell reports (Cambridge) Vol. 42; no. 4; p. 112287
• Main Authors: Hageter, John, Starkey, Jacob, Horstick, Eric J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 25.04.2023
• Subjects: Animals; critical period; Critical Period, Psychological; functional asymmetry; inhibitory signaling; motor regulation; Neuronal Plasticity - physiology; Neurons; ocular dominance; optogenetics; plasticity; thalamus; Thalamus - physiology; Visual Cortex - physiology; visual plasticity; Zebrafish; ocular dominance; critical period; CP: Neuroscience; optogenetics; functional asymmetry; plasticity; zebrafish; motor regulation; CP: Developmental biology; visual plasticity; inhibitory signaling; thalamus
• ISSN: 2211-1247; 2211-1247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112287

During the visual critical period (CP), sensory experience refines the structure and function of visual circuits. The basis of this plasticity was long thought to be limited to cortical circuits, but recently described thalamic plasticity challenges this dogma and demonstrates greater complexity underlying visual plasticity. Yet how visual experience modulates thalamic neurons or how the thalamus modulates CP timing is incompletely understood. Using a larval zebrafish, thalamus-centric ocular dominance model, we show functional changes in the thalamus and a role of inhibitory signaling to establish CP timing using a combination of functional imaging, optogenetics, and pharmacology. Hemisphere-specific changes in genetically defined thalamic neurons correlate with changes in visuomotor behavior, establishing a role of thalamic plasticity in modulating motor performance. Our work demonstrates that visual plasticity is broadly conserved and that visual experience leads to neuron-level functional changes in the thalamus that require inhibitory signaling to establish critical period timing. [Display omitted] •Ocular dominance plasticity-like changes occur in larval zebrafish•Asymmetric visual experience impacts behavior during a visual critical period•Functional changes in the thalamus correlate with visual experience and behavior•Inhibitory signaling is necessary for visually mediated changes in the thalamus Critical periods are developmental windows of heightened plasticity when sensory experience impacts brain function. Hageter et al. identify a zebrafish visual critical period, where visual experience produces neuronal and behavioral performance changes, dependent on inhibitory signaling. This work provides a model for neuron-level study of sensory-dependent plasticity.