Ocular Dominance Plasticity Disrupts Binocular Inhibition-Excitation Matching in Visual Cortex

摘要

Background: To ensure that neuronal networks function in a stable fashion, neurons receive balanced inhibitory and excitatory inputs. In various brain regions, this balance has been found to change temporarily during plasticity. Whether changes in inhibition have an instructive or permissive role in plasticity remains unclear. Several studies have addressed this question using ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex as a model, but so far, it remains controversial whether changes in inhibition drive this form of plasticity by directly affecting eye-specific responses or through increasing the plasticity potential of excitatory connections.