Abstract
During development and aging and in amblyopia, visual acuity is far below the limitations set by the retina. Expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the visual cortex is reduced in these situations. We asked whether neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor, type 2 (TrkB) regulates cortical visual acuity in adult mice. We found that genetically interfering with TrkB/BDNF signaling in pyramidal cells in the mature visual cortex reduced synaptic strength and resulted in a loss of neural responses to high spatial-frequency stimuli. Responses to low spatial-frequency stimuli were unaffected. This selective loss was not accompanied by a change in receptive field sizes or plasticity, but apparent contrast was reduced. Our results indicate that a dependence on spatial frequency in the Heeger normalization model explains this selective effect of contrast reduction on high-resolution vision and suggest that it involves contrast gain control operating in the visual cortex.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Nelson for reading the manuscript and, together with S. Van Hooser, for visual stimulation software, A. Maffei and C. de Zeeuw for discussions, R. Hartman for assistance with monocular deprivation, S. Škulj-Živkovic, S. Scheltinga and S. Riahi for genotyping and C. Pool and J. van Heerikhuize for puncta analysis macros. C.N.L., J.A.H. and J.M.H. were supported by SenterNovem BSIK grant 03053. S.C. was supported by Rotterdamse Vereniging Blindenbelangen, Algemeen Nederlandse Vereeniging ter Voorkoming van Blindheid and Stichting Blindenhulp. C.N.L. and M.H.S. were supported by a ZonMW Vidi grant.
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C.N.L. generated the TrkB.T1-EGFP mice. J.A.H. and C.N.L. devised the experiments and wrote the manuscript. J.A.H. performed the in vivo experiments and implemented the normalization model. M.H.S. carried out the slice experiments. S.C. analyzed parvalbumin puncta. J.M.H. assisted with imaging.
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Heimel, J., Saiepour, M., Chakravarthy, S. et al. Contrast gain control and cortical TrkB signaling shape visual acuity. Nat Neurosci 13, 642–648 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2534
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2534
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