Binocular visual experience drives the maturation of response variability and reliability in the visual cortex
Xiangwen Hao,
Qiong Liu,
Jiangping Chan,
Na Li,
Xuefeng Shi,
Yu Gu
Affiliations
Xiangwen Hao
State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Qiong Liu
State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310000, China
Jiangping Chan
State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Na Li
State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Xuefeng Shi
Tianjin Eye Hospital, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Tianjin Eye Institute, Clinical College of Ophthalmology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300020, China; Institute of Ophthalmology, Nankai University, Tianjin 300020, China; Corresponding author
Yu Gu
State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China; Corresponding author
Summary: A fundamental challenge of neuroscience is to understand how a single neuron responds to multiple synaptic inputs effectively and reliably. In primary visual cortex, repeated stimuli to one eye elicit neuronal responses of inherent variability and reliability. However, it remains unclear how this monocular variability and reliability contribute to the establishment of effective and reliable binocular responses and what drives this development. In this study, using in vivo multichannel extracellular recordings, we demonstrate binocular responses in adult mouse visual cortex exhibit low variability and high reliability. This response characteristic is immature during the critical period of binocular vision development. In amblyopic mice, the maturation of binocular variability and reliability is disrupted, and this defect can be partially rescued by enhancing cortical plasticity via dark exposure. In conclusion, the development of cortical response variability and reliability depends on the normal binocular visual experience, which is further regulated by cortical plasticity.
