, 2003, Shepherd and Svoboda, 2005 and Yoshimura et al., 2005) (Figures 6E and 6F). Using LSPS, we mapped excitatory projections onto LVb neurons in an area encompassing three barrel columns (Figure 6E) and observed results

in agreement with the literature (Briggs and Callaway, 2005, Hooks et al., 2011, Lefort et al., 2009, Schierloh et al., 2003, Schubert et al., 2001 and Thomson and Bannister, 2003). Both RS and IB cells received input from all the cortical layers (Figures 7A and 7B) with a prominent LII/III to LVb projection (Figure 7). The majority of input from LII/III and LVI (the two layers where we could analyze both the home and surround columns) came from the home barrel Dabrafenib research buy SCH 900776 manufacturer column (68% ± 12%). Both cell types received

smaller but significant input from all the layers in the neighboring barrel columns. IB cells had slightly broader input maps, receiving more transcolumnar input than RS cells, especially from the subgranular layers (LV p < 0.005; LVI p < 0.05) (Figures 7J and 7K). We induced experience-dependent plasticity in the barrel cortex by trimming a single row of whiskers (row C or D) so that the deprived barrel column was flanked on both sides by spared barrel columns. Animals were aged P30 at the start of deprivation. In brain slices from animals trimmed for 10–14 days we again measured the input maps for IB and RS neurons in deprived columns and compared them to input maps from controls. Significant experience-dependent changes in input maps of LVb neurons were seen in LII/III, LIV, and LV (Figures 7C, 7D, 7J, and 7K), but experience-dependent changes were most robust in the LII/III to LVb

projection (Figures 7E, 7F, 7J, and 7K) both in RS and IB cells. In spite of having similar input maps under control conditions, input maps of RS and IB cells changed in Cytidine deaminase inverse complementary ways in response to whisker trimming (Figures 7E and 7F). The LII/III to LVb RS projection was reduced within the home column (60% ± 44% of control, p < 0.005) (“center depression”), while inputs from the surrounding barrel columns remained unchanged (86% ± 72%, p > 0.39) (Figures 7E, 7G, and 7J). In contrast, inputs to LVb IB neurons within the home column remained unchanged (LII/III, 114% ± 61%, p > 0.20; LVI 128% ± 111%, p > 0.32), while input from the surrounding barrel columns increased (LII/III, 201% ± 102%, p < 0.00005; LIV, 198% ± 104% p < 0.0001; LV, 145% ± 76% p < 0.008) (“surround potentiation”) (Figures 7F, 7H, and 7K). The excitatory projections to IB and RS neurons thus change in orthogonal patterns in response to whisker trimming.