Fluorescently-labeled neuron in cortex from mouse with amblyopia treated with soluble PirB. DR. MAJA DJURISIC AND RICHIE SAPP, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, STANFORD UNIVERSITYThe time window for the brain to develop optimal connections based on learning and experience is relatively short-lived, occurring prior to adulthood. But this neuroplasticity can be restarted in the visual cortex of adult mice, according to the results of a study published today (October 15) in Science Translational Medicine. Directly inhibiting the activity of a protein, known to put a brake on neural plasticity early during post-natal development, resulted in growth of new neural synapses and restored eye sight in adult animals with so-called “lazy eye.”
“There is a lot of interest in the ‘critical period’ of development when the brain is plastic and undergoes a lot of changes and learning,” said Christiaan Levelt, who studies the biology of visual plasticity at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam and was not involved in this work. “This study shows that, in an adult animal, you can re-open this critical period window and get enhanced plasticity.”
“At its heart, this is about understanding why it gets harder to learn new things as we get older and whether this is something that we can reverse if we knew the right molecules to target, by either adding them back or by suppressing them,” said study author David Bochner, who just completed his PhD research ...
