Listening to Npas4: A transcription factor is the prescription for restoring youthful plasticity in the mature brain

摘要

During development there exist specific time windows, known as critical periods (CPs), during which the brain can be rapidly and extensively altered by sensory experience. Notably, the shift in the relative ability of each eye to drive responses in the visual cortex, or ocular dominance (OD) plasticity, following monocular deprivation (MD) has proven to be a useful model for the investigation of developmental CPs. Early studies by Hubel and Wiesel in cats and primates showed that occlusion of one eye during postnatal development resulted in more neurons in the visual cortex responsive to the open eye and fewer driven through the closed eye, and these shifts in OD were not reversible in adulthood (Hubel & Wiesel, 1970). For many years following this discovery the general consensus was that if disorders due to early sensory deprivation, such as amblyopia, were not caught early enough there was little hope for regaining normal function later in life.